


The Emperor Protects

by ArizonaRanger057



Category: RWBY, Warhammer 40.000
Genre: Action/Adventure, Crossover, F/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Romance, Temporary Character Death, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-10
Updated: 2020-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:21:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 30,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23097769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArizonaRanger057/pseuds/ArizonaRanger057
Summary: He was thought to have been lost to the Grimm on that fateful night, a boy lost to the darkness to never be returned, but would anyone even recognize him if he did? "My armor is contempt, My shield is disgust, My sword is hatred, In the emperors' name, let none survive."
Relationships: Jaune Arc/Original Character(s)
Kudos: 20





	1. The Emperor Protects Chapter 1

-= Remnant - Headmaster Ozpin's Office =-

"What do you mean he's 'gone'?"

"I mean he's just gone Ozzy, one moment the kid was there and the next he wasn't." A rough-looking man said before taking a long gulp from a large silver flask.

Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon academy paused in thought, he had considered the chances of 'her' trying something against her students this year, But he'd expected something a little more under the radar, not in broad daylight surrounded by other students.

"Ozzy," The man said before pausing and running his hands over his stubble in thought as if searching for the right words. "How the hell are we supposed to fight something we can't see?"

Silenced reigned through the room for a moment before the green-themed headmaster let out a long and tired sigh, "We'll just have to find a way to see it then."

"I guess you're right," The man said before turning wound with an intentional wave in his tattered black and red cape, "Rubes was close with the kid so I'll go and talk to her, just leave the next mission info in the regular place."

"Later Ozzy." The man said with a wave just before the elevator doors close, leaving Ozpin alone in his office to plot his next course of action.

"Safe travels Qrow."

-=-=-=Unknown Place - Unknown Time=-=-=-

Jaune wasn't sure when exactly he'd realized he's slipped back into consciousness, but when he did his mind went into overdrive.

Surrounding him was a city, no, the word city was too light of a descriptor, this place was absolutely massive, he looked up and saw buildings reaching up to the heavens themselves, looking over a nearby ledge held inverted results, the buildings didn't just reach up, but rooted downwards as far as the eye could see.

Looking around Jaune was meet with the faces of thousands of people, all of them weaving in between each other as they went about their day, little concern for anyone else as they sped through the streets. 

The buildings looked ancient, but also somehow new, the same symbol of a double-headed eagle covered almost every surface along with a strange script and a multitude of statues of varying size and shape.

Some were no more than a few feet tall and took the form of men and women in simple blocky armor with an even simpler and blockier rifle against their shoulders, their fists held to their chests in some sort of a proud salute.

Others were much larger, a couple dozen feet in the largest instance that depicted a hulking man in an enormous suit of armor, in its hands was an equally large rifle of some kind.

However, it wasn't the size of the buildings that gave Jaune pause, nor was it the immense amount of people or the very obvious cult-like religious zealously that surrounded him.

No, what worried him was the fact that every person that, by all known laws of physics, should have bumped into him just phased right through him.

"Where the hell am I?" Jaune whispered to himself, concern clear in his voice as his mind tried to catch up with what his eyes were seeing.

"A beautiful city is it not?" A booming voice echoed through the blond boy's mind.

In a snap every single person but one disappeared from the wide street Jaune had been occupying.

"I suppose I shouldn't have expected much of an answer this quickly," The old man's voice echoed once again, "Most people I reach out too nowadays instantly recognize me and drop to their knees, it's a refreshing change of pace to see someone who doesn't."

Jaune's eyes narrowed as he stared at the man, the man's mouth never moved, and yet he heard him perfectly clearly, "Where am I?"

The old man let out a hearty chuckle before his voice boomed into Jaune's head once again, "You are on the great Holy Terra, the birthplace of humanity."

Jaune gawked at that, "What do you mean 'Holy Terra', 'Birthplace of Humanity', What in the hell are you talking about?"

"Your world, Remnant I believe you know it as, is nothing but an Imperial colony lost to the depths of space." The old man began before taking a couple of steps closer to Jaune, "And a very interesting colony if I do say so myself."

"This isn't making any sense, who the hell are you?" Jaune asked quickly, he felt like he was in a dream, but everything felt just a little bit too real, and to be completely honest, it was starting to scare him.

"I, my boy, and the great God-Emperor of Man!" The now proclaimed 'God Emperor' bellowed with a heavy laugh, "Although I'm not much of an emperor stuck here on the golden throne."

"None of this makes sense-"

"It will in due time my boy, but first I must ask you to do something for me," The man sighed to himself, a tired look overtaking his face as his voice echoed in Jaune's head.

"What exactly do you need me to do?" Jaune asked cautiously, his eyes staring suspiciously at the so-called 'God Emperor' standing in front of him.

"Stand still."

The moment the old man uttered those words images began to flood Jaune's mind, thousands upon thousands of memories, words, and images he'd never seen before flooded his mind, the script along the walls became readable, and the more memories flooded through his mind the more he began to understand.

Jaune saw sprawling cityscapes and small towns of every kind, millions upon billions of faces flashed before his eyes, some smiling, some screaming, others stuck with a permanent look of fear.

Sooner or later the faces began to blur together and what took their place sent a shiver of primal fear down Jaune's spine, a sprawling battlefield filled to the brim bodies in various states of dismemberment could be seen as far as the eye could discern, most of them with the same bulky weapons and armor as he's seen adorning the statues in the city.

Only these weren't statues. Jaune could feel the bile begin to rise from his stomach before forcing it back down.

The blond boy jumped at the feeling of a gloved hand grabbing his shoulder and forcing him down, only it didn't feel like his body, the gloved hand flipped him over and a man in the very same blocky armor started to shout at him.

Jaune could hear the words he'd said in return, but it didn't feel right, nothing about this felt right, it felt like he was just hitching a ride in another person's body.

Before he knew it, he was back on his feet and peaking over the lip of a not very deep or protective trench, an enormous gun with a blue glowing top humming with power in his foreign hands.

Before Jaune had even realized it the gun fired with a bright blue flash, launching an equally bright blue blob downrange.

After the shot came the pain as waves of electricity and heat burnt his arms, every shot fired was followed with another wave of searing pain.

A scream could be heard down the trench, but before Jaune could decipher the exact meaning of the yell, every man and woman surrounding him let out an equally loud howl as they jumped from the protection of their cover and charged headlong into enemy positions, including himself.

Another split second of charging straight into enemy fire lead to everyone diving headfirst into the next trench.

Only this one wasn't occupied by the matching men and women in the blocky armor, no, these things couldn't even be called human.

Writhing massed of fleshy appendages and a multitude of eyes stared intensely into Jaune's soul as if sensing his fear and feeding off of it.

One word came to mind and Jaune knew he'd never be able to forget them.

Mutants.

Something flashed in Jaune's vision and everything changed, instead of the bloodied battlefield he had been in before, he was in a beautiful meadow filled to the brim with beautiful white flowers, a single enormous tree sat at the center of the meadow. It's leaves a stunning and contrasting shade of red.

Under the tree sat a relatively normal couple, a blond boy and a brunette girl, both with bright violet eyes and wearing a set of light brown military fatigues. The two of them were sitting close to each other atop a small blanket on the ground, laughing and smiling together.

A small blond boy sat with them, chomping down on what could only be an apple.

It was a stark change from the previous vision, but a welcome change.

Then the bright flash returned and again the scene changed.

This time Jaune watched as a man in the very same blocky armor, an Imperial Guardsman he now recognized him as, sprint down a street towards a single little girl.

The moment the Guardsman reached the girl he threw her over his shoulder and began sprinting as fast as his legs could carry him back in the direction he had come.

Other Guardsmen and women stood much further down the long road, some of them yelling for the man to 'run faster' or 'hurry the hell up' and others readying their lasguns for anything

Jaune felt a pit in his stomach form as he watched legions of gunmetal grey skeletal machines march from around a corner, their eyes burning green with hatred as they hefted their large green glowing cannons towards the singular running guardsman.

Jaune reached out in an effort to warn the man, but it was no use, a bright green beam flew down the road and struck the man square in the spine, killing him instantly and causing him to tumble to the ground and drop the girl he was carrying like a sack of bricks.

The skeletal machines continued to advance down the road and fire their hellish green cannons at the remaining Guardsman, none of them having noticed the small weeping girl trapped under the chared corps of the guardsman that had seconds ago been trying his hardest to save her life.

The little girl remained under the guardsman untill the machines advanced close enough for them to notice her, Jaune watched in terror as the machine mercalicly fired into the girl, rending skin from flesh and flesh from bone, leaving behind nothing but a pair of horribly burnt corpses as it advanced with its comrades in search of their next victims.

Jaune hadn't noticed the burning hot tears running down his face untill another bright flash sat him down at in a rather nice chair in an equally nice garden.

In the seat across from him, Jaune spied the old man from before, his eyes were sunken in and he looked far paler than he had before.

The old man let out a heavy sigh before his voice once again echoed through the blond's head, "I am truly sorry, but you need to know the truth, you need to understand the danger that the universe at large is in every single day or you'd never agree to do as I ask."

"Why," Jaune asked softly as tears proceeded to stream down his face, "Why me, why of all people did you choose me?"

"Because you have the potential to become something great my boy." The Emperor said with a sad sigh, "Because I see you doing great things in my name."

"Will I be able to save people from it?" Jaune asked shakily, "Will I be able to spare them from that nightmare?"

The Emperor smiled, "Some of them, but not all."

"Then what do you need me to do?" Jaune asked, his tear-stained face taking up a look of determination, his eyes staring straight at the old man with a mix of burning anger and passion.

"You'll know when the time comes." The Emperor simply stated before letting out a sigh and snapping his fingers, causing Jaune to instantly fall into a deep state of unconsciousness.

"The Emperor Protects, Jaune," The Emperor whispered, "I will be watching over you."


	2. The Emperor Protects Chapter 2

-=Unknown=-

Jaune Arc awakened to a rather drastic change in scenery.

The first thing was that instead of waking up in his comfortable bed at Beacon, he was sprawled out on top of a somewhat large sand dune. The next thing to hit was a throbbing headache, the pure unbridled pain that each thump brought rivaled even the great 'Fruit Punch Incident' of his first Beacon dance.

The next thing Jaune noticed was that the sand was hot.

Very, very hot.

Jaune scrambled to his feet as quickly as his body would allow him, he shouldn't have been surprised that the sand was hot, but what did surprise him was the physical marks the sand left behind, as well as the swelteringly hot desert that surrounded him at all sided as far as the eye could see.

"What the hell?" Jaune whispered to himself as he looked around and tried to get his bearings, his lips felt almost as dry as the desert around him, and he could feel beads of sweat drip down his face.

'I need to get out of this sun.' The blond knight thought to himself, his eyes scanning his surroundings for anything that could be of interest. 

After not spotting anything but mirages and blisteringly hot dunes, Jaune turned his attention to himself, it wasn't his first time in the wilds on his own, when he was younger the entire Arc family would go out on big camping trips every month, the only difference here is that instead of a lush and cool forest he was in a desolate and dry desert

"Okay," The blond muttered to himself before absentmindedly wiping his brow of sweat, "Three hours without shelter, three days without water, and three weeks without food."

Jaune nodded to himself and looked down at himself, a sigh of relief escaped him when he found he was still in his normal attire and still had crocea mors strapped to his belt. 

Jaune began the arduous process of undoing the many latches and buckles that held his chest plate to his body, as much as it pained him to say it, he couldn't afford to carry the heavy chunk of titanium alloy, and the fact that the metal was already burning to the touch told him all he needed to know about its usefulness.

He'd bought it with the remaining Lien he had after running off to Vale to join Beacon, it was a cheap piece of mass-produced armor normally reserved for younger hunters and huntresses to wear when sparing, but he didn't know that when he saw it in the window of a hunstman shop, to him it was more a symbol of his dedication to become a Huntsman.

What once was a pristine white chest plate was now a scratched, dented, and worn in piece of himself, where other students upgraded their arsenal to mech shift weapons and the newest armor trend Jaune remained. He didn't need fancy weapons or armor to protect people.

Jaune shook his head, 'the last thing I needed is to be getting lost in thought' he thought to himself before dropping the heavy plates into the sand.

Turning around, the blond pulled off his hoodie and raised it over his head, he'd need all the shade he could get.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Jaune stumbled as the sand under his feet shifted, the blond panted in exhaustion for a moment before pulling himself up and returning to his trek once again.

He wasn't sure exactly how long he'd been walking, ten minutes? an hour? It was hard to know for sure when the only details you can make out are wibbly tan or wobbly blue.

Jaune felt the sand shift beneath him again but was quick enough to catch himself and continue on his arduous treck in search of shelter, water, and food, in that order.

The blond let out an exhausted sigh, as often as the sand shifted he'd be surprised if it didn't just open up and swallow him whole. 

'It'd probably be more comfortable down there than in this heat' The knight laminated.

Jaune shook his head and let his morbid thoughts drift into memories of the past, memories that would always lift his spirits: Playing video games with Ruby, initiation with Pyrrha, training on the roof, that time Ruby dragged Weiss to JNPR's dorm to play video games.

Jaune paused, the memories were having the exact opposite effect he'd hoped. Instead of feeling happy and content he just felt empty.

he knew he'd probably never see his friends or family again, he'd had plenty of time to come to terms with it during his long walk through what felt like an endless desert.

But just because he'd come to terms with it didn't mean he wouldn't still miss them, Ruby's bright smiling face, the friendly jabs by Yang at lunch, The intelligent conversations with Weiss, His partner's proud gaze as they trained, and the friendly back and forth that Nora and Ren offered. All things he'd more likely than not never see again. All the things he wished he'd be able to see again.

But people needed help.

Those images of death and destruction were still burned into Jaune's memory, there was no doubt they would haunt him for the rest of his life, but if he had to trade his happiness, his own life, to protect innocent people from having to live those nightmares, then he would gladly do it.

Jaune could feel himself losing the strength to stand, his entire body felt sapped of energy and he felt the world around him wobble around him.

The thunderous echoes of rifle and heavy weapons fire caused Jaune's head to snap up, his previous exhaustion forgotten in favor of this new distraction.

Silence reigned for a moment and Jaune almost feared he'd missed his shot when another triage of fire with explosions mixed in echoed through the desert once more. The blond knight turned to where he thought the sound was coming from and began shuffling towards it as quickly as his body would allow him to.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Valmir 'Val' Fehr swept a hand through her bleached blond hair, her deep yellow eyes looking over her co-axial mounted Heavy Bolter as her Chimera rolled along the blistering, sand covered road ahead of them, well road was a little too generous of a word, it was more like a path that had been used so much the sand didn't have any more room to shift beneath them, making it one of the few reliable paths for heavy armor.

There were nine other Chimeras in their armored column, along with six Basilisk Artillery pieces, two Baneblades, and a myriad of support and supply vehicles carrying everything an aspiring guardsman could ever want from rations, water, and ammunition, to Amasec and some of the more 'adventurous' dataslates.

Val let out a heavy sigh, oh there wasn't anything in the world she wouldn't give to get her hands on a bottle of the good stuff the Colonel hid in the Baneblade, But she knew not to push her luck.

The blond-haired Felinid let out a huff before whipping the sweat from her tanned forehead yet again.

Val pulled her canteen free and took a long swig, it was warm, but she couldn't complain, free food, water, and she gets to shoot the big guns? What was there to complain about?

Before the guard, Val had been nothing more than an orphaned street rat in a primitive city local to Valya*, but now? Now she was a bonified badass in the 143rd Valyan Desert Raiders**, the only desert regiments to heavily use both Heavy Armor and Artiliary.

But if she was being honest with herself, life hadn't really changed all that much, most everyone in the regiment either just ignored her or outright hated her from the start, and the only reason they really kept her around was because she was a better shot with a heavy bolter than the entire company combined.

But she didn't care, she wasn't just some orphaned gutter rat anymore, she was an imperial guardswoman, she was the mighty hammer that the great God-Emperor himself would use to smite down the enemies of man, she was to be his instrument in the great symphony of warfare.

Val smiled to herself and muttered a quick prayer, she could hear the crew and Guard squad below her, all of them grumbling something along the lines of 'filthy abhumans', she was positive she wouldn't have heard them had her ears not given her an enhanced sense of hearing, but she ignored them just as she always did, as long as she kept the Emperor in her heart, she would be at his side in death.

The blond Felinid returned her gaze to the stretches of desert around her, she loved it, the blistering heat, the bright blue sky, the sprawling dunes, and the smell, sun-baked sand and a hint of... Val focused and sniffed the air in confusion.

"Blood?"

"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD, SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!"

"CONTACT RIGHT!"

Forms appeared all around them as the overpowering stench of blood and gore hit her like a truck, just looking at the forms caused her head to pound and her eyes to burn, bile began to rise in her throat but she forced it back down in favor of readying her Heavy Bolter.

All hell broke loose, Val opened up on a group of Cultists who had huddled just a little to close together, the hail of explosive bolts tearing into the lightly armored heretics with ease and blowing them to pieces.

Val roared and raked her bolter across a line of cultists, the bolts hitting home and exploding in sprays of gore and sand, the lucky ones died instantly.

Val let slip a prayer to the Emperor as she raked the bolter across another line of cultists, each heavy thump sent a wave of pressure through her body as the heavy round soared through the air and caused the death of one more filthy Heretic.

And by the Emperor did she reveled in it, this was the Emperor's work after all.

Val's ears twitched to her left just as two explosions rocked the chimera, closely followed by two thunderously loud reports that she knew could only come from an Autocannon.

Val swiveled, lined her bolter up, and fired a burst of seven, each round slamming home into the emplacement and igniting its ammunition, causing a thunderous explosion that sent a wave of shrapnel and gnarled metal into any chaos tainted standing too close.

Blond feline ears twitched back to the right, and four more explosions rocked the armored transport, the armor only succeeding to fully stop three of the four heavy rounds, the fourth having penetrated the rear troop compartment before exploding violently.

Val cried out in pain and collapsed to the cramped metal floor, hot bolt shells littered the ground around her, and a long jagged piece of red stained metal was protruding from her right thigh. 

Val hissed in pain as another triage of shots shook the armored vehicle, small shafts of light now being let into the gunner's compartment by shrapnel that just missed her.

Val felt beads of sweat and hot tears run down her face, her eyes were clamped shut, wrapping her gloved hands around the jagged hunk of shrapnel, the guardswoman yanked the piece free, ripping flash and spraying blood across her flak armor and face.

The distinct feeling of blood pooling around her caused the full reality of the situation to hit her, her eyes widened in panic, she didn't want to die, she was only 19, she'd only just been introduced to the modern world, there was so much she had yet to see, so much she had yet to experience.

"Please, I don't want to die!" Val sobbed, hot tears mixing with sweat and blood as it rolled down her face.

Blood only continued to pool around her as the jagged gash in her leg gushed blood in time with her heartbeat, she continued desperately trying to put pressure on the wound, but with the pain and her sudden loss of blood, she was losing strength quickly. Val could feel herself slipping when a hand was suddenly laid on her shoulder, a wave of warmth and comfort washed over her the moment the hand made contact with her body.

A man appeared within Val's field of vision, his face without flaws, piercing eyes and long black hair with a smile that mirrored that of a proud parent, the man spoke, but his mouth never moved, yet his voice still echoed within her mind as smooth as honey, three words, and the thoughts of bright blond hair and striking blue eyes flowed through her mind before she slipped into unconsciousness.

"The Emperor Protects."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

*The planet Valya has only recently been brought under the Imperium's thumb. It was quickly discovered that the planet had a local population of both humans and Felinids that lived together in harmony within rather primitive cities and towns. The recapturing and reintegration of the planet and its populace was smooth and quick, five years later the planet has gained a reputation for having the toughest armored desert regiment in the Imperium.

**The 143rd Valyan Desert Raiders are masters in both desert and armored warfare. Hailing from the desert planet of Valya, their ranks consist of both Felinids and humans. While they are primarily an armored regiment, they do have a competent infantry company to supplement their armor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I added a Felinid, I've never seen a Warhammer story that actually has any Felinids, so I thought it would be a unique little twist, they have a ton of potential in the Warhammer universe but the lack of lore for them has forced me to take a few creative liberties and say that Felinids in this story is more akin to cat Faunus than to furries, it's just easier for me to write.
> 
> Yes, I do prefer wise and kindly Emps to 'Purge the Heretic' Emps, so that's how I'll be portraying him in this story for the most part.
> 
> Also, Jaune and everyone else on remnant speaks low gothic, a language barrier in a story like this is a little above my writing abilities.
> 
> As always, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, drop me a review and tell me what you thought, it inspires me to write faster :)


	3. The Emperor Protects Chapter 3

The smell of death hit Jaune like a truck, the smell wasn't particularly new to the blond, but the putrid mix of blood, sweat, and rot permeated the air in a way he'd never experienced before, and it took all the blond's remaining willpower to not puke up the little remaining water in his system, he couldn't afford to lose any moisture, no matter how bad it smelled

The gunfire had stopped some time ago, there was little to no sound and after a while, Jaune was being guided by nothing but the overpowering stench of death.

The blond knight kept his eyes on the horizon in front of him for any clues to the location of the firefight he'd heard, and after a few more minutes of shuffling Jaune's eyes settled on at least seven columns of thick black smoke rising lazily just over the crest of the dune he was currently on.

The blond blinked, 'How the hell did I miss that?'

Jaune began the arduous task of shuffling up a giant hill made up entirely of sand, but when he got to the top his eyes widened in absolute, total horror.

Down the other side of the dune, there was what Jaune could only describe as a dusty and old road, of course, it wasn't the road that was filling his mind with abject terror, no it was the sheer number of corpses.

No, 'corpses' was the wrong word, these people were turned into fucking effigies.

Pikes were everywhere along the battlefield, the bodies of what Jaune recognized as deceased guardsmen adorn their shafts, large sigils of blood and gore scattered the ground as well as the sides of charred and smoking vehicles.

Jaune doubled over and emptied what little was left in his stomach. After a few moments of gaining whatever composure he could, the blond knight put on a determined face as the Emperor's words echoed through his head again.

'Will I be able to save them?'

'Some of them, but not all.'

Jaune took a deep breath and drew his weapons, crocea mors in one hand, and his shield in the other, the blond knight started to make his way onto the long deserted battlefield.

The closer he got to the road the worse the smell got, and as he drew closer, Jaune made the executive decision to tie his hoodie around his face to mitigate the smell of death with his own sweat.

It didn't do much, but it was a clear improvement.

The first thing Jaune did was check each and every body that was still intact which much to his disdain was only a handful, his fingers resting on the wrists or necks of corpse after corpse, each of their faces burned into his memories forever. 

Two hours later, and the Blond had fourteen shallow graves, each of their bodies having been stripped of their gear and lowered into their hastily dug graves with a burial prayer he'd found in a book labeled 'The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer'. Jaune pocketed the book to read more thoroughly later.

The blond knight sat in front of the other gear he had 'acquired' that he'd layed out on a ratty tarp, A Lasrifle and pistol, ammunition belt, six full charge packs, two Frag grenades, one Krak grenade, a Bayonet, E-Tool, a handful of rations, and what amounted to three whole canteens of water. 

Jaune took a long sip from one of the canteens before letting out a long and satisfied sigh, he may not have completely approved of looting the dead, but he didn't have all that much of a choice in his current situation. The only thing he needed to find now was something to hole all the extra gear he'd scavenged.

Jaune looked around for a moment before his eyes fell onto a relatively intact Chimera, scorch marks and small holes covered the vehicle, but apart from that, it was mostly intact.

Jaune grunted as he stood up from his sitting position in front of his gear, and made for the Chimera, he could smell the blood and gore within the vehicle before he'd even reached it.

Jaune took a deep breath before climbing into the mess of a troop compartment, dried blood and guts coated every surface, chunks mangled flesh and metal littered everywhere.

Jaune grimaced, he'd not find anything of use back here, a look deeper into the transport told the Blond that wasn't the case for the rest of the vehicle, however. To the left, there was a rack of ammunition boxes labeled 'Bolter' and to his right, there was a door that no doubt led into the Gunner's compartment.

Jaune opened the door and found his eyes widening in surprise for the umpteenth time that day.

There, on the floor of the compartment, lay a woman, a set of golden blond cat ears set atop her equally vivid colored hair, her petite face was coated in a layer of sweat and blood, her button nose had a thin line of blood trailing from it, and her thin yet full lips were somewhat open, revealing a set of distinctly sharp k-nines. She was a beautiful woman, there was no doubt about that.

A beautiful woman with a large jagged hole in her right thigh. Jaune dropped himself to her side in a second, his fingers searching desperately for a pulse.

*Ba-Bump*

Jaune's face split into a grin as he ripped off his undershirt and wrapped it tightly around the woman's wounded thigh. His eyes wandered the compartment in search of anything that could be of help.

Jaune grimaced when he found nothing. From what he could tell the woman wasn't in the best of shape, and it was clear that if he didn't do something soon she'd die.

Jaune closed his eyes and swallowed hard, no one else was going to die today.

-=-=-=Line Break=-=-=-

Val woke up with a gasp, her lungs burned as they tried to take in as much oxygen as they could, the smell of death permeated the air, but the world around her was silent, the only sound being here own rough and labored breathing in the tight confines of what surely should have been her tomb.

Bright shafts of light shining into the gunner's compartment through a number of jagged holes in the plating of the chimera, the floor was coated in a layer of dark and flaky dried blood, the bolt shells that littered the floor of the compartment reflecting the light from the outside all around the compartment.

Had she not been in the situation she would have said it was beautiful, in a sort of fatalistic kind of way.

Val shifted her weight to sit up but immediately hissed in pain as her hands shoot to her injury, to her surprise, the flow of blood had halted completely by a simple bandage tied tightly to the wound.

The woman tried to wrack her brain and remember exactly what had happened prior to her injury, but all she could recall was a Chaos ambush and her injury, anything other than that was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

The sound of heavy footsteps caused Val's eyes to widen in fear, did one of the cultists come back to finish the job, or did they want to pass her around before they ripped her apart and strung her up? Just thinking about what those filthy heretics would try made her stomach churn in fear.

The footsteps were closer now, right outside the gunner's compartment, Val's wide eyes stared in fear at the small metal hatch that separated the compartment from the rest of the vehicle as the latch was opened.

The blond felinid clamped her eyed tightly, no doubt the cultist would wish to spill her blood slowly and painfully, to hurt her in every way imaginable before killing her and disgracing her body.

A second passed, and then another, followed by another, much to Val's surprise nothing happened, no one struck her, the smell of death didn't get any worse, and the only sound within the room was that of metal clinking together gentely. Slowly the woman opened her eyes to see a man with golden blond hair dressed in strange clothing with his back turned to her. 

From what she could tell, there were no chaos runes, there was some blood on him but it didn't look like he'd put it there purposefully, and when she looked at him her head didn't hurt, which was always a plus.

Val let out a breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding in, causing the blond man to perk up and turn around. Deep blue meet bright yellow, and much to Val's surprise the man smiled kindly at her before kneeling by her side with a canteen in his hands, he brought the canteen to her lips and motioned for her to drink.

The felinid woman forgot her fear in an instant and began greedily gulping down as much of the water as her dry throat would allow, she hadn't realized how thirsty she had been untill she'd been presented the vessel of water.

Val let out an involuntary whimper the moment the blond man pulled the canteen from her lips.

"Sorry, but there's not much water so we'll have to ration." The man said with a nervous chuckle, "My name's Jaune by the way, it's nice to see I could save at least one of you."

Val could see the young man's demeanor change from kindly to distraught, the felinid woman brought a hand to Jaune's shoulder and put on the best grin she could muster, although all she could manage was a small pained smile, "Thanks, I thought I was a goner for sure."

"Of course," Jaune said with a small smile, "Nothing a little Aura can't fix."

"What?"

"I unlocked you're Aura," Jaune stated again simply, "You would have died had I not."

"What's Aura?" Val questioned suspiciously, her voice taking on a sudden edge that wasn't there before.

Jaune paled.

"Of course she doesn't know, you dunce," Jaune muttered to himself as he tried to wrack he brain to make aura not sound like unsanctioned psyker powers, "It's a sort of.. blessing."

"What kind of blessing?" Red flags were flashing within Val's mind as she tried to make sense of what he meant, what the hell kind of blessing healed those on death's door? The only blessing she'd ever heard of that did that was the Emperor's blessings, but even those were just rumors.

Jaune noticed the woman's growing concern and put his hands up in front of him as nonthreateningly as possible, "It's nothing bad, A.. friend taught it to me, he told me I could use it to help people."

Val stared at the blond for a good moment, her eyes searching for any foul play but came up with nothing. "Who told you that you could help people?" 

Jaune's eyes darted around the compartment nervously, the memories the Emperor had shown him told him everything he needed to know about his subjects, especially the fact that they'd probably kill him for heresy if they suspected a hint of a lie when talking about the Emperor, and it was almost a guarantee she'd think he was lying.

"That's not important."

"I beg to differ," Val stated coldly, as she felt the familiar handle of her laspistol in her hands, the barrel shoved into the blond's chest as he nervously glanced between her and the weapon. "Who. told. you."

"T- The Emperor."

Val's eyes narrowed

"It's true!" Jaune stammered out, his mind running a mile a minute as he tried to find a way out of this with them both breathing. 

"Bullshit!" Val yelled as she jammed the barrel of her laspistol deeper into his chest, she wasn't exactly sure why she hadn't just shot him already, something was holding her back, almost as if her body knew more than her mind would allow her to in the moment.

"If I prove it to you will you put the gun down?" Jaune bargained.

"Like you could prove the mighty God-Emperor himself gave you the power of his blessings, the only people who are ever graced with such power are Canoness of the Sisters of Battle." Val chuckled to herself before looking him up and down with a cocky smirk, "And you sure as frak don't look like a Canoness to me."

Val watched Jaune in confusion as he sat down a foot in front of her, her laspistol remained trained on him, but all the blond did in response was close his eyes and breath deeply through his nostrils, and let out an equally long exhale from his mouth.

The felinid woman's eyes widened and her mouth fell open as the small compartment was filled with a white glow that originated from Jaune himself. A coating of bright golden flames intertwined with white, covering the blond from head to toe. Val could feel the air around her become purer by the second, a wave of calm washed over her as she stared at Jaune in utter disbelief.

Val gasped as memories flooded back to her, The explosion, the hand on her shoulder, feelings of calm, the visage of the mighty God-Emperor himself smiling down upon her, and the vissage of bright blond hair and striking blue eyes.

A hand was placed on her shoulder and another wave of calm washed over her, yellow meet blue again, the laspistol slipped from Val's hands and hit the ground with a loud clang, she finally understood.

-=-=-=Line Break=-=-=-

Pyrrha Nikos stared at the empty bed beside her own with wet puffy eyes, the yellow and white blanket was still haphazardly thrown aside just as the owner had left it, an adorable blue onesie was neatly folded up and placed on the pillow of the bed.

Rubbing her face, the red-haired spartan sat down on her now lost partners bed, a black hoodie with the imprint of a bunny on its front clutched to her chest.

Like a damn breaking, hot tears streamed down Pyrrha's face, her shoulders racked violently as she tried to comprehend why. Why did he have to be taken from her?

Pyrrha barely registered the door to her dorm being opened, as the two remaining members of now team NPR entered, Nora was doing about as well as Pyrrha, rivers of tears were rolling down her face, but instead of the violent sobbing of her red-haired friend, she held a blank thousand yard stare, here eyes lacking the normal spark of energy one would normally associate with the girl.

Ren held a blank face, his aura giving off a dull muted glow every couple of seconds, no doubt negating whatever feelings of anguish he'd try to feel at the loss of the person he was proud to call his brother.

They were, in a sense, a family. They lived together, ate together, laughed together, and fought together. But the loss of their leader pained them all more than they could have ever imagined.

It took Nora an hour to regain her own composure, she tried to put on a brave face for Pyrrah, but even the orange Valkyrie knew she wasn't fooling anyone.

After another 30 minutes, Pyrrha had calmed down some, her violent sobbing having turned to quiet whimpers as she curled up into a ball on her former leader's bed, her face blank and eyes empty.

A series of polite knocks caused everyone in the room to tense.

Ren responded and opened the door a crack, his body positioned in a way that whoever was on the other side couldn't see into the room. Surprise etched across his face for a moment before he corrected himself.

"How can I help you, Weiss," Ren spoke politely.

"I've- I've come to give my regards." Weiss spoke, a slight tremble in her voice, "And return something."

Ren swore Weiss's eyes weren't normally that red.

Weiss pulled an olive green heavy jacket from behind her and handed it to Ren, the boy arched an eyebrow, he'd recognized it as Jaunes, but he seemed to recall the blond saying something about having lost it on one of their field trips.

After the end of their first years, Jaune had apologized to Weiss for his constant attempts at courting her and offered to start over. The white-haired heiress accepted and they both became fast friends. It always baffled Ren how one second Jaune could be a stuttering nervous mess, and the next be talking economics with Weiss at the speed of sound.

Weiss noticed the look on green ninja's face, her face morphed into an uncharacteristic look of nervousness before speaking, "Jaune gave it to me, last winter during our field trip to Atlas."

Ren nodded his head and muttered a silent 'goodbye' to the Schnee heiress before closing the door once again.

Ren folded the jacket neatly and placed it at the foot of Jaune's bed. 

A feeling of sadness welled up inside the black-haired boy before his semblence negated it once again, with a heavy sigh, Red layed down in his bed and stared blankly up at the ceiling above him.

-=-=-=Line Break=-=-=-

"Are you sure it was wise to tell the student body he's dead?" Glynda questioned, her eyes never leaving her scroll, "We still haven't found a body."

Ozpin sipped from his mug and sighed, "And we hardly ever do Glynda, the chances Mr. Arc survived that mission even with the support of RWBY and Qrow are slim to none."

"I suppose you're right then," Glynda sighed, "The town mayor has already commissioned a statue in his honor, Without Mr. Arc's distraction the town would have fallen."

"I believe we have a name to add to the monument Glynda," Ozpin stated simply as he opened a drawer and withdrew a hammer and chisel.

"I agree."

Ozpin took a final sip from his mug, before setting it down of his desk, one hand picked up the hammer, the other the chisel. The headmaster stood up from his desk and left his office under the supervision of Glynda.

ten minutes later and the Headmaster was standing in the main plaza of the academy, in front of him sat a long solid stone wall about eight feet tall, names were etched across its surface, some were in different languages, others were so old they could hardly even be made out. But the recurring theme was they were all heroes of mankind, all of them had given the ultimate sacrifice to protect humanities from the tides of darkness that wished for its destruction.

"Rest in peace Jaune Arc," Ozpin whispered to himself before engraving the boy's name and years into the wall.  
  
"Thank you for your sacrifice."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I mashed together the Emperor's Blessing that would normally be given to a Canoness, and Jaune's Aura. He's effectively got an on and off switch for the Emperor's Blessing which will definitely come in handy in future endeavors. *Whisper* Definitely not against the inquisition *Whisper*
> 
> Also, I probably should have prefaced this earlier, Jaune was in his third year at Beacon when he 'died', ie. no Breach, no Fall of Beacon, no dead P-Money.
> 
> I made this decision primarily because I wanted Jaune's disappearance to have a bit more of an impact on those left on Remnant, and the way Canon goes, he's just not close enough to anybody but Pyrrha to really get what I wanted to go for. (Also what's all this spicy stuff with Weiss, eh?
> 
> As always, if you enjoyed drop a review and tell me what you think I did right or wrong, throw your ideas my way, or just make a prediction on what'll happen next! I'll see ya'll next chapter. :)


	4. The Emperor Protects Chapter 4

-=-=-=Six Months Later=-=-=-

Six months.

Six grueling months of training, from close combat and marksmanship to safety and purity classes, the 143rd Valyan Desert Raiders whipped Jaune into shape.

Although it wasn't like he wasn't already in impeccable shape, three years of Beacon, all of which with extra training from Pyrrha-

Jaune shook his head, he couldn't think about that right now, the last thing he needed was to start wondering about them.

Jaune stared blankly at the strange mix of metal and masonry that made up his barracks, he'd seen the religious heraldry in the visions, but seeing them up close and personal was a totally different story. Large stone statues of long-lost warriors and purity seals slapped on every possible surface. Aside from the decor, the room was filled with the hustle and bustle one could only imagine from a lively military barrack.

One bunk to Jaune's left was a couple of grizzled older men, no doubt veterans, sat in a circle playing a game of poker, their faces were blank of emotion, a pile of cigarettes and a bottle of what was no doubt alcohol sat between them in a makeshift 'pot'.

Across the room sat an unbelievably tall woman, Jaks Moritz if he remembered correctly, her light brown hair only a couple of inches long, her green-hazel eyes studying the large tome in her hands, it's cover adorned with the symbol of two intertwined snakes and a skull with wings. Jaune remembered seeing her in training, although he never saw her outside of the first aid course for some reason.

The bunk to his immediate right was occupied by a short brunette woman whom he'd never meet, her face was neutral as she tapped away at a data slate, her violet eyes darting back and forth across its screen.

Further to his right was a table of men and women, some of them Felinids, all drinking and laughing together, all of them acting like they weren't on a hunk of metal and steel being flung through a literal hell dimension to some of the bloodiest war imaginable.

It was strange, this universe was so full of horror and death, yet these people push on, they joyously continue on their path with faith in their Emperor. It was bizarre, and yet it somehow made him feel more at home than ever.

Jaune was shaken from his thoughts by his partner, the blond-haired felinid having climbed down from the bunk above him to sit beside him, "Thank you, again."

"I said to stop thanking me," Jaune replied, his elbow finding it's way to her side, "I wasn't going to leave you to die."

Valmir casually punched the blond man and smirked, "I'm thanking you for the top bunk."

"Oh, yeah," Jaune mumbled, his cheeks slightly flushed in embarrassment as he scratched the back of his head nervously, "it's no problem,"

Val let out a small laugh, "Well I'll thank you again for that too, and that 'other' thing."

Before Jaune could respond, a glint caught Val's eye, looking over she found Jaune's sheathed sword leaning against the corner where his bed meet the wall. Grabbing it with practiced ease, she unsheathed a portion and inspected the blade. "So, where'd ya get the metal poking stick?"

Jaune sighed in annoyance, every attempt at grabbing the sword from the felinid woman being meet with failure, "It was my grandfathers, he fought with it, my dad fought with it, and now I fight with it."

"Oh?" Val looked at the weapon, confusion clear on her face, "And where did you're family get a power weapon from?"

"It's not a power weapon, Val," Jaune chuckled, using her moment of confusion to snatch the sword from her grasp and place it in the locker beside his bed, "It's just a sword, no fancy gimmicks."

"Well, I suppose an appreciation for the classics can't hurt."

Jaune let out an almost bitter chuckle that didn't go unnoticed by Val, "Yeah, the classics."

"Are you-"

A klaxon rang through the barracks, everyone's attention on the closest speaker, their previous activities forgotten as they listened intently.

"ALL HANDS, PREPARE TO LEAVE WARP SPACE IN T-MINUS FIFTEEN MINUTES." A mechanical voice spoke through the shipwide Vox.

The once calm and homely environment of the Barrack immediately evaporated, men and women packed away their personal effects with practiced ease and moved to their lockers to don their sandy regimental jumpsuits and light brown flak armor.

A couple of moments later and Jaune tightened the last strap on his armor, his helmet sitting on the bed next to him, his sword still leaned against the wall.

The blond stared at the sword for a moment, his eyes studying the sheathed blade for a moment. The sound of Val's heavy boots impacting the ground next to him caused him to shake his head and slide on his helmet.

Jaune picked up the sword and followed Val out of the barracks, the familiar weight of the sword soothing his already rising nerves.

-=-=-=Line Break - Armory=-=-=-

"Name and Rank?" The quartermaster asked in a tired tone, his eyes glazed over after handing out his hundredth lasgun.

"Jaune Arc, Guardsman." The blond man replied easily.

The quartermaster processed the information, his eyebrows raised a bit as he read his data slate, gaze shifting from the device and Jaune a couple of times before shrugging and retrieving a lasgun from the rack behind him.

The quartermaster placed the weapon in front of Jaune before spinning around again, this time returning with a belt kitted out with a bayonet, e-tool, canteen, three power packs, and two frag grenades.

"Try not to bleed on it too much, okay?" The tired man stated bluntly before waving the next person up. 

The blond man grimaced and collected his wargear, allowing Val to proceed and collect her own gear.

While she did that, Jaune donned his belt and examined the lasgun he was assigned, it was a Voss pattern if the shortened barrel and wire stock were anything to go by.

The weapon was clean, but not without wear and tear, every mark and scratch a symbol of honor, this weapon had seen true warfare, and would no doubt see even more in the upcoming years.

The blond slipped the weapon onto his shoulder with content, it may not have been much, but every little bit helped, right?

-=-=-=Line Break=-=-=-

"INCOMING!"

*BOOM*

Jaune dropped to cover, pulling Val with him as clumps of grass and dirt rained on their heads, bloodcurdling shrieks of pain followed, as they always did after an Earthshaker was sent their way.

Jaune ripped a frag grenade from his belt and flung it over the trench wall, the resulting blast and cries of pain gave the grime-coated blond the chance he needed to peak from cover and let loose a handful of shots, three hit home, flash-boiling the skin of a mutated cultist's head, making it burst like a crushed grape.

Dipping back into cover, Jaune heard the snaps of lasgun fire as it peppered the dirt above him, showering the filthy blond in more dirt and grime.

Looking around the small trench, Jaune took a headcount of the surviving members of Phoenix squad, Val was alive, though she'd taken a pair of autogun rounds to her flak chest, the squad medic, Jaks, was alive and well, although she was too busy triaging the few injured they had from other squads to do anything more, and one of the squad's grenadiers, Aeris, remained uninjured.

Jaune nodded his head and opened up their last munitions box, ten more power packs and they'd be out for their lasguns.

The blond grimaced, the last thing he wanted to do was fight some mutant with a crab claw for an arm with nothing but a sword.

The fire died down again, only the occasional crack of a lasgun or scream for a medic to remind them the battle was still going

Everyone took this opportunity to recover and prepare themselves for the next wave, taking sips from their canteens or cramming down a ration before checking over their gear over and over again, one man from another squad slipped his helmet over his eyes and went to sleep while another drew a pack of cigarettes and lighter, passing it around.

The pack was tossed to Jaune, he accepted, pulled one out, lit it, and passed the pack on.

The blond took a long drag from the half-crumpled white stick, the rolled tobacco burnt his throat, but it was a welcome change from the putrid stench of rotting carcasses and war.

In Remnant, Jaune had always been starkly against smoking and drinking, but now, after everything he'd seen, everything he'd done. The blond couldn't imagine a day without it.

He was changing in more ways than he'd ever imagine, things that would have horrified Remnant Jaune were thoughtless actions, in Remnant, it was easy to condemn something he'd never had to experience, but here? It was do or die, kill or be killed, kill or let others be killed. 

And he sure as hell wasn't about to let anyone else be killed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a shorter build-up chapter here, but there's a reason for it.
> 
> Okay so this was kind of a pain in the ass to write, It went through about four different edits before I even felt remotely okay with posting it, and even then it was way too long so I've cut it down into a couple of chapters.
> 
> Also, yes I know the quote from the description is from the Blood Ravens. No Jaune will not be a Blood Raven, he's a Guardsman, and that's what he'll stay.


	5. The Emperor Protects Chapter 5

-=-=-=One Month Later=-=-=-

Jaune took a long drag from his cigarette, eyes rolling over the lush green forest landscape, it reminded him of the Emerald Forest, Initiation, and his Friend-

"Oi Sarge, come get a look at this!" Jaks said aloud, a pair of binoculars held to her eyes and pointed down the road ahead of them.

The blond now Sargent shook thoughts of the past from his mind and stood by Jaks side, plucking the Binoculars from her hands and peering through them.

"What am I looking at Jak," Jaune said simply, his eyes rolling over a fallen over sign, a small log cabin just off the left of the road, and the burnt out husk of what could have been a car.

Jaks let out a huff and spoke tiredly, "We've got to hunker down someplace before it gets dark."

Jaune put away his binoculars and true to the female medic's words, the sky was beginning to dim and the only place nearby for them to stay with any sense of security would be the cabin. They'd be rolling the dice and taking a risk but it was better to the burnt out car, or Emperor forbids, roughing it under the twin moons and getting cut up by heretics in the dead of night.

The blond nodded before raising his voice, "I want this place locked down for the night Val, Aeris, clear out the inside, Jaks and I will clear the outside, get it done."

The squad echoed out a 'Yes sir' as they readied their weapons and got into a loose single wedge formation, Jaune taking point, Val and Aeris about five meters behind him on either side and Jaks taking up position behind Aeris.

Jaune's own Lasgun, no sporting a few more dents and scratches, was brought up to a low ready, barrel sweeping over the surrounding forest. Each member of the squad doing the same with their own weapons.

The moment they approached the cabin, Val and Aeris broke off from the rest of the squad and silently entered the primitive building, their weapons covering each corner and crevice as they moved from room to room.

Meanwhile, the remainder of the squad cleared the surrounding area of the building, eyes scrutinizing every little detail of the outside.

Behind the back of the cabin, Jaune noticed a couple of auto-gun impacts in a couple of trees, and the main log building itself, along with two relatively freshly dug graves, one looking to be of average size, and the other hauntingly small.

Jaune let a frown form on his face before moving on, his eyes continuing his scan of the area for any threats, when he found none, he signaled Jaks to follow and entered the cabin from the back.

The first thing he noticed was the smell, the scent of blood and death permeated the building in a way only chaos could. The second was the mess, furniture was upturned or broken altogether, and any personal belongings that may have held any value were either smashed or missing.

"Building's clear Sarge, Just one corpse," Val said in a grim tone, her face going dark, "Poor guy offed himself."

Jaks grimaced, "We found two fresh graves out back."

"Heads up, Sarge!" Aeris warned before tossing a small leatherbound journal to Jaune, A stenciled wolf's head with two crossed swords on the cover. 

The blond man nodded to the Grenadier before flipping the journal open and reading the most recent entry.

-=-=-=-

-

One of daddies friends brought him home today, a short fat man, Mommy told me to go to my room and stay there, I don't get why daddy and his friend yelled at each other about mommy so much though, it got quiet for a long time so I came out to see if daddy was okay but he said they took mommy, but that she'd be right back so I didn't need to worry.

Daddy made me a big dinner after, he even let me have a bunch of the sweets he saved up for special rewards, They were so tasty. he let me have as many as I wanted!

Then Mommy came home, she looked sad, and when she looked at me or daddy she'd cry, I didn't know what to do but daddy said I should leave her alone and let mommy sleep.

-

Mommy won't come out of her room, and daddies friend keeps coming over to try and help her, he stays in her room with her for a long time but me and daddy always leave when he does, I hope mommys getting better, daddy said that soon everything will go back to normal. I cant wait to see mommy again, I miss her so much

-

It happened. I wanted to ignore it, to pretend it wasn't true, or that it was impossible, but it fucking happened.

First that fucking bastard Montague took my wife, used her for his own twisted fantasies that piece of shit, spouting self-righteous bullshit about how I was to bow to him because he was the fucking governor.

I wanted the taint not to be there so badly, I wished it away and pretend it wasn't there.

But what he did to Eve!

What that sick son of a bitch did to my daughter? my baby!?!

I made him pay. Simple as that.

I'm sorry I couldn't protect you, Eve, I'm sorry I couldn't protect you and Mommy from the bad man.

I'll be seeing you soon baby,   
The Emperor Protects

-=-=-=-

Jaune clamped the journal shut, his hands shaking and eyes clamped shut as he tried to rain in his emotions, all eyes were on him, looking to him for guidance.

The blond took a deep breath before pulling out a cigarette from the inside of his flak vest and lighting it, taking a shaky pull from the white stick. A moment later, Jaune opened his eyes.

"Where is the body?" Jaune asked Val simply.

"Kids room Sarge."

"Hunker down and set up here for the night, I'll take care of the body."

"Yes, Sir"

Wordlessly, the other three members of Phoenix squad got to work setting up camp while Jaune retrieved the corpse and carried it out the back door.

It didn't take long for camp to be set, so as soon as it was, Jaks left the building out the back and found Jaune digging a man-sized hole beside the two other graves, his flak vest and uniform top discarded to the size, lasgun leaned against a tree just within arms reach of the blond man.

"Why are you digging that man a grave?" Jak asked simply.

"The man deserves to rest with his family," Jaune replied without pause, his focus never leaving his current objective.

"I see."

A silence fell over the two as Jaune continued to wordlessly dig, cigarette in his mouth and knuckles white.

Eventually, Jaune paused in his digging, assessing his grave in progress before nodding his head and climbing out and motioning for Jaks to help him lift the now covered body gently into the grave.

With that done, The blond sergeant mumbled something Jaks couldn't quite make out before picking up his shovel again and start filling in the hole.

"If you're going to just stand there and stare than get inside," Jaune said pointedly, "Or you can grab a shovel and help."

Wordlessly Jaks pulled her E-tool from her belt and began shoveling dirt herself, by the time the sun had fallen behind the trees, painting the sky a beautiful mixture of blue purple and orange, the grave had been filled and marked.

With his job done, Jaune collected his gear and returned to the rest of the squad, leaving Jaks to pay her own respects, and read the inscription on the grave.

A simple 'Julius' had been scratched into the horizontal plank.

-=-=Remnant - Beacon Academy=-=-

Pyrrha woke with a jolt, sweat soaking her sheets. For the third night in a row, the same dreams haunted her sleep.

Dreams of what she could only describe as utter chaos, a cacophony of whispers so jumbled she couldn't make sense of anything, booming explosions, screams of terror, of complete and utter agony.

But just as quickly as she awoke, the dreams faded into the void, Pyrrha scrunched her brow, her mind focusing on the dream she had just had, but to no avail.

With a heavy sigh, Pyrrha silently got up from her bunk and slipped from the dorm, muscle memory bringing her to the one place that brought her comfort.

The rooftop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh hi, didn't see you there, pretty crazy to run into you here-
> 
> Yeah, I'm not even gonna try that shit, I've been gone for an unholy amount of time and the only excuse I have is I bought my first 40k models and have been building and painting pretty much every night since.
> 
> But it is the will of the Emperor that this story continues.
> 
> Mostly on account that I have no money and three armies worth of painted minis.


	6. The Emperor Protects Chapter 6

Phoenix Squad woke at first light, their temporary camp doing well to keep them out of sight from any wandering Chaos forces and giving them some much-needed rest.

The camp was packed up quickly, and the treck back to allied lines began.

After roughly an hour of walking the squad was halted by Jaune's raised fist as he took up a crouched position and withdrew his binoculars from his kit, a frown quickly adorning his lips.

"Heretic patrol at Zero Three Three," Jaune paused, "I count six unarmored Cultists armed with improvised weapons, one armored with an auto pistol, they have no clue we're here."

Jaune pointed at Jaks and Aeris, "You two take cover to the left, Val and I will take the right, we'll ambush them here."

Everyone chimed in with a 'Copy' and took their positions behind thick trees and outcroppings of vegetation, all of them keeping their heads low and an eye on their targets.

Jaune keyed his vox, his voice crackling in his squad's ears, "Heads on a swivel, I don't want any surprises."

Three clicks of acknowledgment followed, and so the waiting game began.

Jaune focused on the silence. 

Now that he thought about it, the silence was almost unnaturally so, no birds chirping, not even the whistle of the wind.

A knot formed in the blond Seargent's stomach, a heavy feeling of unease resting heavily upon his shoulder. Jaune whipped his head around, his eyes searching the woodland for anything out of the ordinary, but nothing stood out to him. Yet the feeling persisted, so he continued searching, eyes roving over tree after tree, bush after bush.

That was, untill he spotted something, just barely visible as it slipped into cover behind a large fallen tree.

Jaune blinked twice and rubbed his eyes before focusing on the spot he'd seen what he thought to be a boot, but now, clear as day, a man stood.

Then another, and another, and another.

Jaune's head began to pound as distant whispers began to assault his mind, promising him power beyond his wildest dreams. Promises he knew would bring him nothing but a long, agonizing death.

"CONTACT REAR!" Jaune cried before diving in between Val and the incoming fire, round after round pinging off against his Aura and protecting both himself and his charge.

Jaune yanked Val to her feet and dragged her behind a solid looking tree, propping her up and slapping the top of her helmet before leaning from cover and pouring three lasbolts into the chest of a lightly armored cultist, his chest cavity exploding open, boiling remnants of organ and bone spilling to the forest floor.

The blond Arc quickly ducked back into cover as round after heretical round relentlessly hammered at his somewhat fragile cover, each burst of fire throwing chunks of wood and dirt into the air.

Before he knew it, the rounds stopped flying, and both Jaune and Val peaked from cover, lasguns letting out great cracks as beams of ruby-red light took down another three Cultists, their scavenged armor doing little to stem the tide of high power lasbolts.

A trio of explosive booms and a cacophony of screams could be heard from behind the two blond guardsmen, it seemed their comrades had encountered the enemy as well, and by the sound of it they sure as hell weren't pulling any punches.

Jaune quickly peaked out of cover, they were closing in now, and as they closed in, they grouped up, giving him the opportunity to do what he did best.

The blond took a deep breath, unsheathed Crocea Mors, and awaited the lull in the hail of lead yet again.

After a few seconds, that lull came, and Jaune bounded out from behind his cover, a warcry slipped between his lips as he charged the surprised and bewildered Cultists, the few of them not reloading hastily were taking shots at Jaune's running form, none of their heretical rounds found purchase, but his aura paid the price.

Jaune bellowed, and with a final bounding step, he was among the heretics.

Ancestral sword meet supple heretical flesh as the blade of Crocea Mors sliced through the man like a hot knife through butter. Looking past the man, Jaune saw only three other cultists, each smiling wickedly as they abandoned their empty rifles and brandished their own assortment of improvised weapons, a crowbar caked in gore, a wicked machete covered in heretical symbols, and a rusty bayonet.

Before either side could make a move, a trio of lasbolts sailed by Jaune's head, hitting the man with the crowbar, head to exploding in a violent display of gore, boiling blood and brain matter splattered his allies, disorientating them and giving the Jaune the perfect opening to strike.

Crocea Mors was not but a blur of silver, red, and gold as the blade quickly disemboweled the machete-wielding cultist. By then the final cultist had regained his bearings and was in a loose fighting stance, his bayonet held in a rear grip, an unnatural set of pointed red-stained teeth peeking between smiling lips.

The cultist dove forward, stabbing wildly at Jaune, and right into the blonds awaiting blade before sliding himself to the hilt, laughing maniacally, before continuing to stab wildly.

Jaune struggled against the assault, Exhaustion compounded with a rapidly dropping aura, and the reckless stabs of a madman became too much for the blond.

The cultist took advantage of this sudden weakness by pushing all of his weight into Jaune, causing the blond to fall backward, aura shattering upon impact with the hard forest floor. All Jaune could feel after that was agonizing pain in his face, the knife slicing over his cheek, lips, and chin.

With the coppery taste of blood and the pulsing pain of his open wound, Jaune summoned every ounce of strength left in his body and grabbed hold of the cultists head, and with little other options left, Jaune's thumbs found the crazed man's eyes and squeezed.

The heretic let out something between a laugh and a scream, the bayonet falling from his grip as he tried and failed to dislodge the pair of digits crushing his eyeballs. before long, the man fell from his position atop Jaune, giving the exhausted and injured guardsman the chance to draw his own bayonet and plunge it deep into the cultist's neck, finally ending the crazed man's screams with a gurgle.

With a pained and tired sigh, Jaune fell off the now dead cultist, and fell to the ground, chest heaving, and a long wicked slice pulsing with pain across his face, a small river of blood flowing down his chin and coating his flak armor in blood.

Jaune focused on the silence of the forest yet again, his tired mind taking solace in the chirping of birds, and the rustling of the trees above him swaying in the cool breeze before slipping into unconsciousness.

-=Remnant - JNPR's Dorm=-

Pyrrha jolted awake, her eyes wide with fear as she tried to move her limbs to no avail, she was defenseless. Even the fact that she knew she was still in her dream didn't help stem the flow of fear, she'd been having this same dream for the past three days, even trying to stay up for as long as possible to avoid them, but the moment she succumbed she was in her bed, unable to move.

An icy tendril of fear worked it's way up her spine when she caught the glimpse of a shadow moving just outside of her peripheral vision, then another, and another.

Yet she knew it wouldn't end there, the shadows were only the beginning.

As if on queue, the shadows stopped moving, and her vision went black, her eyes were open, but everything before here was pitch black, not even a sliver of light giving to give her any hope of escaping this hellscape of a dream.

"Our proposal still stands champion!~" A voice whispered to Pyrrha, the voice sounded feminine but unnatural at the same time, it was more like an amalgamation of whispering voices all compiled into one chilling voice "We can bring you that which you desire.~"

Images of Jaune flooded Pyrrha's mind, playing out like a movie, but not for her, no, it was for 'it'.

"A very fine specimen indeed!~" 'It' hissed, Pyrrha could have sworn she felt something brush against her ears, but couldn't be sure in her dream state. "Be my Champion, and you shall be given eternity with your love, you shall finally hold him by your side!~"

Pyrrha scoffed at the thought, Jaune was his own man, with goals and aspirations, she couldn't force him to stay with her, no matter how much she wished it.

"And yet those aspirations where precisely the reason he was lost to you in the first place!~" 'it' responded, "You need to protect him! Yes!~ Protect him from himself!~"

Pyrrha's mind was moving a mile a minute, in a strange way, it was right, Jaune's desire to become a Huntsman and protect people had been his ultimate downfall, and she hadn't been able to do a damn thing about it, a fact she was ashamed of day after day.

"I shall give you but one week to make your decision.~" The entity whispered, Pyrrha swore she could feel something wet run over her face, but the sensation disappeared as quickly as it came. "You shall know peace untill then, my Champion.~"

The Champion woke with a start, her muscles taut and eyes whipping wildly around the room in search of 'it', but she found nothing, team JNPR's dorm was just as she'd left it, four beds, and three people.

As much as she'd condemned the thought, Pyrrha had much to consider.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's this? A chapter update within a vaguely normal amount of time?
> 
> I spoil you so!
> 
> In all seriousness, I'm really trying to get back into writing, so you'll be seeing more updates for this story quite a bit more often, I still don't have a schedule set up, but It's in the works.
> 
> If you enjoyed the chapter, or if you didn't, leave a review and tell me what you think, it helps me to keep me inspired, and I do love seeing how people feel about this story.
> 
> Untill next time.


	7. The Emperor Protects Chapter 7

"Jaune, Jaune it's time to wake up," Pyrrha spoke gently, "We're late for our mission!"

"Wha?" Jaune groaned, flipping over and burying his face in his pillow.

"I said we're late for our mission Jaune."

The blond leader of team JNPR remained motionless for a moment before catapulting from his bead, tripping over his blanket he'd so hastily thrown off and falling face first into the dorm room floor.

Pyrrha laughed before helping the young man to his feet, "We're not late yet, but you'd better get ready before we are, Nora and Ren are already having breakfast."

Jaune blinked, "Aww come on Pyr, that's not fair!"

"Of course it's fair Jaune," Pyrrha laughed, "If I hadn't then you'd have slept through the day!"

"Touche." The blond responded while digging through his dresser and picking out his combat outfit, "Did you tell Nora not to eat the food they got for us this time?"

"Of course fearless leader, you're egg sandwich is safe today."

"Good," Jaune said with a content sigh, "This is our first joint mission since the Breach, and in my hometown no less, I want everything to be perfect."

Pyrrha picked Jaune's armor from the closet and handed it to him, "Of course, I'm sure you're family will be ecstatic to be seeing you."

"Yeah, they've been blowing up my scroll ever since I told them, said they'd have a 'Banquet fit for a king'," Jaune sighed, "I guess I'm just nervous is all, I've not seen them since I left."

Pyrrha helped the blond leader with his armor straps, "I know they'll be proud of you Jaune."

"Thanks, Pyr, Let's go get some food before Nora gets her hands on it all!" Jaune said with a laugh, His red-haired teammate really knew just what to say to cheer him up, and for that he was grateful.

-=Ansel - 5:37 PM=-

Air buffeted against Jaune's face, his hair flowing wildly as he peaked out the open doors of the bullhead, his eyes watered, but he kept them open, gazing out at the small town he'd called home for almost 18 years.

Ansel, a small frontier town directly south-east of Vale proper, and a rather large town at that.

The place was set up in three rings, each ring having a large stone wall keeping it separated from both the wilds and the other rings. The outermost and largest ring was the commercial and agricultural district, with the majority of the space being taken up by roaving fields of farmland and pastures for livestock. The space left was known as the market, the de facto heart of the town, even from high above Jaune could see people staring up at the bullhead, children and parents alike watching the vehicle fly by.

The next ring was the residential district, A place where the people of Ansel could feel safe and raise their families away from the fear of Grimm.

And finally, was the center ring, The estate of the town mayor and his family.

"Hey Jauney, can you see you're house yet?" Nora yelled, excitedly bouncing on her feet and leaning out the bullhead further than most would call safe, "Which one is?"

Jaune sighed, "Yes I can see it, and you'll find out soon enough."

Nora pouted but accepted his answer, instead opting to assault the girls of team RWBY with questions instead.

Before everyone knew it, the bullhead began it's decent to the center, which piqued everyone's interest, they'd clearly passed over two other bullhead pads, why were they going straight to the center.

"Maybe the Mayor wanted to talk to us about the mission?" Yang asked, her curiosity getting the better of her as she herself got up from her seat and peaked out the side.

Nora was next to her in a flash, "Ooh!~ What if that's Jaune's house!"

Jaune could hear a distinct 'hmph' from behind him before Weiss spoke, "As if, the Mayor just wants to see who's taking up the mission is all."

The bullhead touched down a moment later, the only one to great them being a fragile looking old woman in a form of maids uniform.

Jaune hopped out first, followed by the rest of teams RWBY and JNPR before the bullhead lifted off once again to await the completion of their mission.

"Master Jaune, it is so good to see you," The old woman cooed, a large smile on her face as she embraced the blond leader, "We've all missed you so much!"

"I missed you too Gran," Jaune said with a blush of embarrassment, embracing the woman back before pulling away and looking back to his team, "This is my team, Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora, and that's RWBY, Weiss, Yang, Blake, and Ruby."

Everyone gave their own hello before been told to follow Gran to the estate proper.

The Arc Estate.

Jaune could swear he heard Weiss's jaw hit the landing pad before being dragged along with the group by Ruby.

Everyone followed along as Jaune gave them a quick tour, the training grounds, bathhouse, gardens, stables, and armory standing out to more than a number of the estate's guests before ending at the front door of the large home.

"You'll all get pretty much free reign to roam the property and do whatever you want," Jaune gave both Ruby and Nora a pointed look, "Within reason."

The old woman opened the large Oak door and welcomed the two teams in, telling them they could drop their stuff by the door and take it to their rooms one everyone was settled.

"Do you have pancakes?!?" Nora said bouncing up and down excitedly, drool running down her face.

"You'll have to wait for dinner to be served, wouldn't want to ruin your appetite now, would you? Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to check on just that." The old woman said with a smile before walking down a hallway, once the audible sound of a door closing reached the two teams ears did the questions start flowing.

"You live here?" "You didn't tell us you were a prince!?" "Where is the Armory?" "Where's your family?" "Will we get to meet them?" "SHOW ME THE GUNS!~"

Jaune dropped his backpack by the door and placed Crocea Mors in a rack by the door before speaking, "Alright, everyone just chill out, I'll answer you're questions during dinner, first we need to get settled in."

Everyone begrudgingly agreed and followed Jaune up a large set of wooden stairs, the mixed smell of wood and home cooking with a hint of smoke caused a wave of nostalgia to wash over him.

At the top of the stairs, Jaune showed both RWBY and his own team the two guest rooms they'd be staying in and left them to settle in with their bags and prepare for dinner.

Jaune left his team and wandered to his own old bedroom, a dark blue wooden door with a stylized 'Jaune' painted on it.

With a creak, the door opened, and he was hit with another wave of nostalgia, it was just the way he'd left it.

Sitting on his bed, Jaune picked up a framed picture from his bedside table, it was a photo from a family camping trip they'd taken the summer before he'd left, everyone had a large smile on their face as they huddled together roasting marshmallows over a fire.

Jaune let out a sigh before felling back into his bed, a smile gracing his lips before the exhaustion of his trip hit him like a truck, and he fell asleep.

-=Sword Class Frigate - The Unending Flame=-

An Imperial Navy officer ran hurriedly through twisting passageways, taking lifts and bounding past squads of black armored guard and hulking red robed tech-priests.

Droplets of sweat rolled down the officers face as he arrived at his goal, a large imposing door situated in the centermost chamber of the vessel, a door that, if he wasn't careful, he'd not exit.

With a gulp, and a second to steel himself, the officer thumbed the mechanism, and the door swung open without a sound.

Within the barren room sat a single large impressive desk with a stylized 'I' decorating the front, and a single woman working behind it, her eyes watching him with a burning gaze that was almost painful to keep too long.

"What have you found captain?" The woman questioned coldly, her gaze remaining steady on the man, sifting within his mind and learning all she'd required before he'd even opened his mouth.

"We've set a course to the location you asked of us Lady Inquisitor," The man stated, standing ramrod straight and holding his gaze to hers, a commendable effort for a man in his situation in her opinion, "The Lord General of the forces planetside is less than happy, but said he'd have no trouble finding the man you described, apparently, he'd already been on the Lord General's radar for his actions in the field."

The woman sighed before taking a long sip of her mug, the recaf being more than sufficient to satiate her exhaustion, "Good, and does the Lord General know if his exact whereabouts?"

"Yes Lady Inquisitor, he is currently being treated in the medicae on the Righteous Fury in high orbit for severe exhaustion and lesser injuries, he's been unconscious for two days."

"Good, see to our esteemed guest's transport to our medicae personally as soon as we arrive." The Inquisitor ordered to the frankly terrified officer, "Do I make myself clear captain?"

The man maintained his gaze, "Crystal, Lady Inquisitor."

"Then you are dismissed," The woman answered with a smirk, "Alert me when we have arrived."

"Of course Lady Inquisitor." The Officer said before turning and leaving the room, as soon as the ominous doors shut silently behind him, the Inquisitor let out a long and tired sigh.

"Jaune Arc," The woman mumbled, "What does the Emperor have in store for you?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, I feel like I'm only getting better and better at this cliffhanger thing!
> 
> Who do YOU think this mysterious Inquisitor is? Could it be someone from Remnant? Could it just be some shmuck? Find out in the next exciting installment of 'The Emperor Protects'!
> 
> In all seriousness though, I've really been putting a lot more effort into this story and I hope it shows.
> 
> As always, please follow and favorite, and most importantly of all, leave a review, it really helps me to keep this story going and motivate me to keep working at it to bring you guys more and more content faster.


	8. The Emperor Protects Chapter 8

Jaune awoke with a wince, his face felt terrible, a pulse following along with his heartbeat, along with a constant ache stretching through his entire body. the ache was normal, as an ex-hunter in training and current guardsman exhaustion and soreness was an everyday occurrence.

The blond opened his eyes and was assaulted by a light that had no business being as bright as it was, and a room so sterile it sickened him.

After a moment of adjusting, Jaune found himself in a private room, which was suspicious enough in an of itself, however, that wasn't the most concerning thing about where he'd found himself. That honor went to the large stylized 'I' and embezzled to the only door.

The guardsman's mind went into a panic, what in the Emperor's Golden Throne did the Inquisition want with him? There was no way they could have known about him already, he'd bearly even done anything that could even warrant suspicion, even to the inquisitions standards.

Before Jaune had any more time to think, the "i" split and the door opened, admitting a red-robed individual he'd believed to be a member of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Three glowing blue lenses stared at Jaune, "You have awakened? The chances of this were six point three seven percent." A feminine mechanical voice crackled, it's head tilted before it let out a long string of binary.

"Uhh, Hello there?" Jaune waved awkwardly, wincing as his muscles objected to the polite gesture.

"Seargent Jaune Arc of the Valyan 143rd Desert Raiders, you're monitors show that the implants did not reject, that is a good sign." The vox assisted voice said with a strange hint of satisfaction. "You are aboard the 'The Unending Flame' of the Inquisition."

Jaune paled as his suspicions were confirmed once again.

The tech-priest tilted her head, "You're heart rate has risen by fifteen beats per minute, you have nothing to fear."

The blond's mind did a backflip, it was the inquisition for fuck sakes, of course, he had something to fear, the single most fucked institution in all of the Imperium was holding him, a man with special powers, on one of their ships. If that wasn't something to panic over, they by the Emperor he didn't know what was.

"You must relax Arc, my Lady is not interested in your power."

Jaune froze, head slowly rotation back to the tech-priest, "What did you just say?" The blond whispered, bearly audibly.

"My Lady is not interested in your powers, quite the opposite actually, she is here to offer you a position within her retinue." The tech-priest crackled out, her voice barely holding a tint of excitement back.

The young man continued to stare wide-eyed at the tech-priest, his eyes completely blank of coherent thought as his mind flew through every single outcome he could think of, a large majority of which did not end well for him in the slightest.

Jaune tried to open his mouth to speak, but was unable to form a coherent sentence, only able to get out strings of gibberish before letting out a simple and desperate "How?"

The sound of static filled the room, the tech-priests approximation of a laugh Jaune assumed, either that or it was Mechanicus for 'kill the heretic', he was going to find out soon.

"My Lady has already sifted through your mind Arc, though it was quite draining." The mechanicus woman stated matter of factly, "I must say, you're mind is quite the plethora of knowledge, I've been sifting through it for the better part of a day now."

The cogs in Jaune's mind continued to turn, "What?"

The tech-priest let out a crackled sigh, "I'm sure My Lady would prefer to speak to you about the details, so let's skip the 'what the frak' part and get straight to the examination."

"The what?" Jaune sputtered

If the tech-priest heard him, then she didn't show any indication of it as a plethora of mechadendrite emerged from under her robe, each sporting a gnarly tool Jaune couldn't see ever being used in any medical profession.

Before he knew it, they all converged on him, each on poking and prodding at his aching body, taking blood samples, temperatures, and scans, before they all withdrew and return under the red robes, whenst they came.

"It appears you are in almost perfect health, and with no signs of chaotic taint to boot." The mechanical woman said before pointing at a folded pair of red fatigues, "You might want to get dressed, My Lady wishes to speak with you, I shall be waiting outside."

The tech-priest made for the door, her mechadendrites carrying her out of the room with nary a sound.

Jaune let out a sigh the moment the door closed, one moment he was fighting cultists planetside and now he was tangled up with the Inquisition.

The blonds head flew up, he had been fighting planetside, with his squad.

Where was his squad?

Jaune ignored his protesting body and jumped out of the medical bed, quickly dressing in the set of fatigues, they were clearly of higher quality than the Valyans were issued, but that was hardly a surprise when on the ship of an Inquisitor.

Without hesitation, Jaune left the medicae office and followed the tech-priest through the tight winding corridors of the voidship, he needed to find his squad, and if anybody knew where they were, it would be the Inquisitor. After what felt like an eternity of wandering through plasteel corridors and dodging past inquisitorial stormtroopers and crewmen alike, he was face to face with the largest door he'd ever seen in his life.

Without a sound, the imposing door swung open, revealing a room with nothing more than a large and equally impressive desk, and a woman clad in pitch black power armor trimmed silver.

"Seargent Arc, Enter." The cold voice spoke simply, Jaune complied, the door noiselessly swinging shut behind him.

Silence reigned through the room, Inquisitor and Guardsman inspecting each other as one would prey and predator respectively.

Jaune inspected the woman's features, smooth dark brown skin, round nose, thin lips, a head of sandy blond hair, and a pair of piercing violet eyes. Her face portrayed no emotions as she looked him up and down before nodding.

"You are of Remnant, correct?"

Jaune nodded, his mind reeling for what felt like the tenth time today.

"Of course I already knew that, I've been awaiting your arrival for a long time." The inquisitor said matter of factly, as she took several power-armored steps toward him, looping behind him and inspecting every detail of his person.

Before Jaune could speak, a loud bang, followed by an impact to the blond's back sent him to the ground with a thud, his aura having absorbed the blow as intended.

"Fascinating indeed." The inquisitor whispered, the bolt pistol in her hands still smoking as she holstered it to her side, "It is at the Emperor's behest that you are brought before me today so that I may extend an invitation to you and you're squad to join the His Holiest Inquisition as a member of my personal Stormtrooper Retinue."

Jaune recovered quickly, standing back up and staring the Inquisitor down with the best glare he could muster, he knew it would do little, but he wasn't exactly happy with getting shot.

"And why should I? You just fucking shot me?" Jaune asked angrily, his face heating up and every ounce of self-restraint keeping him from taking a swing.

"Because it would be far easier for you to get home with my help than without it." The inquisitor answered in a bored tone, her voice cold and face empty of anything that could remotely be called emotion.

Jaune took a deep breath and unclenched his fists, the last thing he needed to do right now was to start a fight he couldn't win. "Where is my Squad?"

"They are settling in their new barracks, as will you be after this meeting."

"I haven't accepted your invitation," Jaune said matter of factly.

"It was never a choice, the Invitation was but a formality, as far as the Administratum is concerned, you and your squad are dead." The inquisitor stated simply, reaching her hand behind her back and withdrawing an inquisitorial rosette, and a data-slate.

"Welcome to the Inquisition Lieutenant Arc, this data-slate will allow you access to authorized parts of the ship, as well as help you to requisition new gear for your squad, use it wisely, I'm taking a risk with you, don't make me regret it."

Jaune accepted the items, and his anger subsiding into something more akin to acceptance before swiftly turning and leaving the enormous room, he couldn't waste time dealing with inquisitorial spooks, he had a squad to take care of, and they came first.

-=Sword Class Frigate - The Unending Flame - Barracks Section=-

Jaune followed the data-slate to his designated squad barracks and stood in front of the warn metal door, a scuffed yellow '#037' painted on it's front.

Jaune's hand hovered over the door cogitator, his mind still in overdrive trying to process the past hour and a half he'd been awake, Inquisitors, promotions, tech-priests, and his future. He'd been given a plethora of information and sent on his way, It was a shock, to say the least.

Everything had changed in the blink of an eye, in little more than a few days, Jaune had gone from boots on the ground guardsman to an equally as boots on the ground Inquisitorial stormtrooper.

With a shake of his head and a hefty tired sigh, Jaune steeled himself and thumbed the cogitator, causing the door to slide up and open with a silent hiss.

The blond took a few steps into the barracks to find three people, in the same fatigues as him, all huddled around a standing locker.

Jaune silently approached, none of them had noticed him yet, as they were all far too engaged with whatever it was they had found in the locker to hear the door open. 

"Why the hell does he get a power sword and we don't?" lamented the familiar voice of Aeris, Jaune peaked over a pair of sandy feline ears to see the aforementioned woman holding sheathed Crocea Mors.

The ears folded down a bit before the sandy blond woman spoke, "It's not, Jaune told me it was just a regular old blade from his father."

"Wow, only dead for a few days and you're already pawning off my stuff huh?" The blond now lieutenant said with a chuckle causing all three of the bewildered guardswoman to whip around and stare directly at him.

The room was dead silent, no one moved a muscle, each of them staring at the blond that had been standing right behind them with a mixed look of shock and relief.

"Uh, hey guys," Jaune sputtered nervously, his stone-faced resolve crumbling under the collective gaze of three very concerned, and very angry women, "What's up?"

The moment those words whispered past his lips, Jaune knew he would have a long night ahead of him.

His squad did deserve to know the truth after all. 

The whole truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why hello there, fic still isn't dead, just been in a bit of a financially negative place, which in turn has been keeping my attention elsewhere for a bit.
> 
> A lot of people commented on last chapters flashback and how it could have been done better, While I think it was done well enough, I've now edited it so that it is, without a shadow of a doubt a flashback. It won't change anything within the actual story at all, it just made the time change more obvious.
> 
> Other than that, thank you all so much for your kind words and support with this story. The reviews are one of the big things keeping me going and helping me to get motivated enough to get another chapter churned out at the asscrack of dawn.
> 
> Oh, and to all those worried that this story will remain in the Warhammer universe, don't worry, Remnant is just around the corner ;)


	9. The Emperor Protects Chapter 9

-= One Year After Induction into the Inquisition =-

A cacophony of sirens and blinking red lights awoke Jaune and his squad from their sleepless slumber. Bodies moved on autopilot as the now squad of six jumped from their bunks and threw on their crimson red jumpsuits, and black boots before each of them made a mad dash for their secured lockers.

Jaune was the first to arrive, followed closely by Aeris, their hands running over the lockers cogitators in sync before they blinked green and opened to reveal their kit.

Jaune immediately got to work securing his jet black carapace armor to his body. As soon as he was finished, he snatched his helmet and secured it to his head, hands already grasping for his next item, Crocea Mors, which he swiftly latched to his belt, then his standard laspistol, and finally, his Hellgun.

The blond wasted no time in sliding the weapon's sling over his helmeted head, and turning to face the now similarly armored figure next to him, his helmets mask still unsecured.

The somehow still strikingly female figure turned her back to him and he wasted no time in getting to work, taking a step forward, Jaune grabbed hold of the thick cable protruding from her backpack and handed it to her, she accepted, and secured the cable to the mag well of her hellgun, giving the blond a thumbs up from over her shoulder, Jaune flicked a few buttons on the backpack, causing the device to hum with power.

Jaune then turned around himself around and they repeated the process.

With weapons, gear, and kit all secured, Jaune thumbed the lockers cogitator causing it to seal itself and took a few steps away from the lockers.

His unmasked face wandered over his team, all of them putting the finishing touches on their gear.

Jaune cleared his throat just loud enough to be heard over the sirens, all eyes were immediately on him. Had he been in this scenario a year and a half ago, he'd have no clue what to say, in fact, it was safe to say he'd be shaking in his armored boots, and he was the first few time, the first few times he'd been deployed as a member of his holy inquisition he'd been terrified, not just for himself but his squad as well.

But he'd learned, he'd gotten good at pushing that fear down deep and focusing on his team's safety.

"Let's not keep the heretic waiting!" Jaune shouted, earning himself an echo of 'Yes, Sir's, with that, Jaune secured his mask to his helmet and smiled.

They quickly exited the Barracks, all of them falling into the formation of two three-man columns before beginning their jog to the hangars.

It was an uneventful jog, the voidsmen, and other navy personnel quickly getting out of the way for the no doubt dangerous-looking stormtroopers, some of them looked awestruck by the display, others were too busy trying to get wherever it was they were going to care.

Five minutes later and they were in the hanger as it bustled with activity, men, and women of all branches running too and fro, flight crews making final checks on Valkyries, and ferrying crates of equipment and gear into their cargo holds.

The squad quickly jogged through the hangar to their assigned Valkrie, it's troop ramp down, and interior filled with as much equipment as the bird could carry with it's six extra occupants.

They wasted no time in securing themselves to their seats, they sat there in relative silence for a moment as everyone did checks on their weapons. Jaune pulled his Data slate from his belt and started flipping through it.

From what he could tell, they were going to be dropped with the rest of the retinue into an Imperial Guard base set up about fifteen clicks from the Tau frontline, there had been reports of a certain General O'Neil having fallen for the temptations of the flesh with a Xeno.

"It's really not that hard to just shoot them" Jaune scoffed to himself before replacing his Data slate and doing his own weapons checks.

Just as he'd begun, the troop ramp raised and not a second later a voice crackled through the cabin, "This is your captain speaking, please keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times, we'll be arriving at Camp Damascus in twenty minutes, till then, The Emperor Protects."

The squad echoed back the prayer, before finishing their checks.

Jaune let his head relax against the plasteel wall behind him, eyes staring blankly at the ceiling before feeling someone interlock their gloved fingers with his own.

Turning to face them, Jaune saw the same strikingly female form beside him, he knew who it was, of course, they'd become very familiar with each other over the past few months, sometimes it was small things, like a hand to hold before a drop, other times it'd been secretly in the showers when the rest of the team were asleep. 

But those things aside, he grasped Val's hand tightly, before relaxing again, a feeling of happiness washing over him, and for the first time in his year and a half of being in this new world, Jaune truly felt content.

-=Remnant - (J)NPR's Doorm=-

Pyrrha paced around the dorm, deep bags under her bloodshot eyes, her usually neatly kept crimson hair a rats nest, her hands neurotically rubbing together as she paced in front of Jaune's old bed.

She stopped pacing as suddenly as she'd started, her head turning slightly to stare at the untouched bed before letting out a choked sob, she couldn't think about anything else no matter how hard she tried, not the Vytal festival, not her friends, not even her own health, she just couldn't get her lost love out of her head.

Then, just bearly audible, came the very voice from her dreams that made her afraid to sleep, the voice that sounded more akin to a snake than any Human for Faunus.

"Ssstay up allllll you like preciousss, you can't block me out foreverrrr!" The voice cooed, Pyrrha's face took the form of panic as she felt a shiver run down her spine, the phantom feeling of a tongue running across her cheek causing her to lash out and slap herself across the face.

"Get the fuck out of my head!" Pyrrha begged, as tears began to stream down her face, "Just leave me alone!"

But the voice didn't listen, the faint sound of hissing laughter could be heard no matter how hard she covered her ears or curled up into a ball.

No matter how long she stayed awake, the voice could always be heard, reading off her thoughts and fears as if it were reading from the Sunday paper. Promising her more power than she could ever imagine, promising her things that she knew were impossible.

"They're posssssible if you just sssssubmit!" The voice now boomed in her head.

Then, without warning, multiple pairs of hands were on her, grasping at her wrists and head, Pyrrha fought back but didn't get very far, her exhaustion having sapped all energy from her body.

"Pyr? What the hell are you doing stop it!" This time the voice didn't feel wrong, it didn't feel like it knew her every desire and fear, Pyrrha opened her eyes, hot tears still streaming down her face as she came face to face with all of team RWBY and the rest of her team, each of their faces showing worry and fear.

Then Pyrrha saw her hands, they were covered in blood and small clumps of crimson red hair, her blood, her hair.

Pyrrha screamed before falling into unconsciousness, and with that, the voice returned.

-= Three Clicks Outside Camp Damascus - Valkyre Gunship =-

Jaune sat in silence, still grasping Val's hand, his eyes roving around the cabin as the pilot's voice crackled back to life, "Three Minutes to drop ladies, final che-" Before the pilot could finish, a shrill beeping could be heard through the intercom.

"Shit! We've been locked, Evasive maneuvers, deploy Chaff!" The pilot yelled as everyone in the troop bay jerked to one side. Jaune gripped Val's hand tighter, the sound of fire impacting against the hull could be heard before a Tau Rail Rifle slug punched through the troop compartment like paper mache and turned one of the door gunners heads into a pink mist.

Then, before Jaune could even process what had happened, an explosion rocked the compartment.

"I've lost my co-pilot, along with the port engines, I'm gonna try and put us down!" The pilot yelled over the intercom before another explosion rocked the transport, the intercom coming back with nothing but static no matter how many times Jaune tried to call him.

A feeling of vertigo overtook Jaune as if he were spinning, then it hit him, They'd lost their pilot, and we're currently falling from the sky.

"Brace yourselves!" Jaune bellowed, one hand gripping Val's hand for dear life and the other holding his seat restraints, he looked to the woman next to him, and everything went black.

-= Remnant - Beacon's Infirmary =-

Headmaster Ozpin stared blankly at the red-haired woman currently sedated in the bed before him, bandages with patches of red wrapped around her head, head twitching as her face showed a permanent look of utter unbridled horror.

"How is she Peach." The headmaster said simply.

"Do you mean physically or mentally?" The woman stated matter of factly.

"Both."

The professor let out a sigh, "Not good, Physically she'd malnourished, dehydrated, she hasn't showered in a good long while, and that's completely ignoring her self inflicted injuries."

"Which also links back to her mental state no doubt," Ozpin asked, already knowing the answer.

"Well yes, While we can't get a solid idea of her current mental state I think it's safe to say, given recent events, that she's not doing so great, if I were to make a guess, I'd say it's probably due to the untimely loss of her partner."

Ozpin hummed at this, he had the same thought, but something just didn't sit right with him, he couldn't place exactly what it was, but it just felt wrong, like there was some unnatural source for this suffering.

"Keep a close eye on her, she is not to be left alone under any circumstances." The Headmaster stated before swiftly exiting the infirmary and coming face to face with those that had found the poor champion.

Nora was the first out of her seat, eyes red and searching for answers, "How is she?"

"She is currently sleeping, we don't know what exactly caused this but we believe we have an idea." The headmaster said gently, placing a hand on the orange-haired girl's shoulder.

"She needs her rest, and so do you, go back to your dorms, I'll be looking into this myself so rest assured, Nikos will be fine." He said before removing his hands and walking down the hall to his office.

It didn't take long for him to arrive back in his office, the view was beautiful, but soured due to current events.

Glynda arrived shortly after him, a scroll in her hands and a purpose in her step, "There's been a disturbance in Forever Fall."

Glynda handed him the Scroll, he swiped through the information present to him, an energy spike, as well as a good amount of seismic activity, but no pictures, whatever this disturbance had been, it'd taken their eyes and ears.

"How quickly can you have a team there?" Ozpin stated simply, handing the headmistress back the scroll.

"Two hours."

"Good, get it done Glynda."

With that, Glynda swiftly left, leaving the Headmaster to his own devices, with a heavy sigh, Ozpin removed a mug from his desk and poured a bottle of amber liquid into it, today was shaping up to be an interesting one.

-= Valkyrie Transport Crash Site - Unknown Territory =-

Jaune's eyes fluttered open, his mask's heads up display showing him a readout of his vitals and ammo reserves, a cursory glance told him he was suffering from light bruising, and a minor concussion, but other than that he was in perfect health.

A cough racked his body, immediately dashing away his relife as he let out a groan.

A glance around the cabin told him a different story, a few pieces of cargo had slipped from their places and been scattered about the floor, or was that the ceiling? Jaune unlooked his seat restraints, quickly falling onto his back, confirming his fears that the ceiling had indeed become the floor.

With another pained groan, Jaune got to his feet, eyes immediately falling on the upside-down limp form of Val still secured to her seat.

Without a second thought, the blond unhooked her and gently helped her to the floor.

Jaune felt a wave of relief wash over him as he found her vitals to be stable and in the green, with that taken care of, the blond checked the rest of his squad, Aeris had a broken rib but was otherwise fine, Jaks was already beginning to stir when he'd gotten to her, her only injuries being a knock to the head as she unhooked herself from her seat and fell to the floor.

The two newest additions to the team were nowhere to be seen, a large wicked rend in the plasteel hull where their seats had been being all he needed to see.

Jaune moved on to the door gunners, one of which was alive apart from the bone sticking from his left leg, and the other he didn't even bother checking, the headless corpse being nothing more than something he needed to step over to reach the pilots' compartment.

Jaune thumbed the cogitator for the door and was met with no response.

Jaune scoffed and returned to the troop bay, Val was on her feet and Jaks was looking over the door gunner's leg.

"Aeris, how you feeling?" Jaune asked simply.

"Ready to kick some ass, Sir."

"That's what I like to hear," Jaune said with a smile, "Jaks, stabilize him, we're setting up a perimeter."

The woman nodded to him, Jaune nodded back and the three remaining members of the squad left the cabin with weapons at the ready.

Their hellguns roved over their surroundings.

They'd crashed in the middle of a dense red forest, the leaves falling to the red grass at their feet, small patches of almost pure white stone shone through the crimson grass. 

Jaune lowered his hellgun into a low ready position, as they circled the crashed transport, but they found no contacts, nothing but silence.

Jaune looked to the pilot's compartment and found nothing but shattered glass, wrecked metal, and two bearly recognizable charred corpses.

"Stay put, and keep your head on a swivle," Jaune stated before reentering the troop cabin, Jaune watched for a moment as Jaks reset the man's bone. He bit back a scream before passing out from the pain.

The blond looked away from the procedure, and set his sites on the Valkyries cargo, at a glance it looked like everything that a recon mission might need, ration packs, laspacks, long-range Comms, two Recon Bikes, and a couple of other things.

But what caught Jaune's attention was the large padded box secured to the pile with an abnormally large number of straps, Jaune withdrew his knife, cut the straps, and pried open the box.

Jaune let out a low whistle at the sight of ten very well secured plasma guns.

Moving on to another less secure box, the blond repeated the process and found himself unable to keep himself from smiling at the very beautiful, and very useful crate full of Krak Grenades.

Jaune continued this trend with every crate he could find; One Crate of plasma guns, two crates of ammunition for said plasma guns, four crates of laspacks, two crates of Krack and normal grenades, two crates of rations, a crate of Comms equipment, and two heavy weapons crate containing all the fix in's for a lascannon, and autocannon emplacement.

Of course, that's not including the two Recon Bikes, and the two Heavy Bolters and ammo mounted to the Valkyrie itself.

Jaune finished his inventory and relegated himself to the Comms, they may not have crashed that far from the Camp, but he'd rather not sit around here waiting for the Xenos to finish the job.

The blond fiddled with the equipment before finally powering it up, the soft hum and rush of static telling him he was but another step closer to getting back on track.

Without hesitation, Jaune keyed the transmit button and started talking.

"This is Lieutenant Jaune Arc of His Holy Inquisition, our Valkyrie went down Three Clicks En-route to Camp Damascus, Our Pilot's are down and we've got wounded, Requesting immediate support and Medivac, this Message will repeat, The Emperor Protects."

Jaune released the transmit key, flipped a few other buttons and switches, the moment he began to hear the message repeat, he turned from the Comms and returned to the outside world.

Outside, Jaune took better stock of the situation, They had the Armorments and supplies to stay here for two to three weeks, maybe even a month if they rationed, but he'd rather not stay out in the field for anywhere near that long again.

"Aeris, there's a box of Plasma Guns in the hold, grab one and stock up on ammo, Val, see what you can do about getting those recon bikes out here and ready to go, pack them up with long-range gear as well.

They both echoed a 'Yes, Sir' and retreated into the troop compartment, Aeris looking a little more excited than she should have been.

Jaune let out a sigh as he listened to his voice through his helmet radio, they'd been in worse scenarios before.

The blond removed his mask and withdrew a pack of Ilos from his leg pouch, placed one in his mouth, and lit it.

He welcomed the rush of Nicotine and whatever other chemicals they shoved into the death sticks, his shoulders slacking as the stress melted away for just a moment. Aeris exited the troop transport through the now upwards facing troop ramp, a Plasma Gun and bandolier of ammo cells now slung across her body.

Jaune waved his hand and she quickly took position on the other side of the crashed Valkyrie. Val exited shortly after, pulling along one of the bikes and setting it against its kickstand beside the troop ramp.

The blond took another long drag, holding it in for a moment before expelling the smoke from his lungs, Placing the cigarette back in his mouth, Jaune returned to the interior of the cabin and began searching through the crates, quickly discovering a moderately sized rucksack.

"That'll work," Jaune said to himself before shoving about three days worth of rations and water into it, along with eight laspacks, some Comms equipment, and the other staples of survival, sleeping gear, fire starters, and anything else he might need.

After he finished packing the bag, Jaune removed his hellgun from his chest, along with the backpack-mounted power pack, and placed them against the wall.

Jaune then made his way to the crew survival box, mounted right beside the pilot's door, and opened it, revealing a Voss pattern Lasrifle, and a Trauma kit.

The blond removed the sling from his hellgun and installed it on the regular lasrifle before returning to the laspack crate, filling his chest rig with as many packs as he could fit, the final total coming to around nine, including the one he loaded into the rifle itself, more than enough.

With a nod of his head and his kit reoriented for the mission at hand, Jaune returned to the red forest, thankful that inquisition had a weird obsession with the colors red and black.

"Status on the bikes, Val?" Jaune asked before taking another drag from his quickly depleting cigarette.

"One is good to go, about a 122-mile range, but with the extra gas can added by yours truly you've got about 200 miles to play around with, far more than you'll ever need, but just to be safe."

Jaune smiled, dropping the cigarette to the ground and stomping it out with his armored boot. "I'm gonna go and scout our surroundings, keep your eyes and ears open, I'll be back in a few hours, okay?"

"You're so cute when you get all protective!" Val cooed, her arms wrapping around Jaune's neck as she pulled him in for a kiss.

Their lips smashed together for what felt like forever, but when they separated it'd only been a moment.

"I love you," Jaune said simply.

"And I just barely tolerate you"

The two of them laughed with each other, savoring the moment until they finally separated.

Jaune fully shoulders his pack and secured his rifle before mounting the Bike, he turned to Val and smiled, she pecked him on the helmet and secured his mask to his face.

"Come back safe." She said almost too quietly for him to ear.

"I always do."

With that, Jaune revved the bike's engine and sped off into the crimson red forest, the sound of an engine echoing for a moment before disappearing completely, leaving Val in complete silence as she stared at the last place she'd been able to see her lover depart.

-= Remnant - Beacon's Headmasters Office =-

Ozpin sat at his desk, his mug perpetually full but not having the intended effect. A ping from his desk computer provided a much-appreciated distraction.

The grizzled headmaster tapped on the notification, a message from Glynda, no doubt about the disturbance in Forever Fall, as well as a video attachment, and an audio file.

'No new siesmic activity at the original site, but this was captured on a camera about two miles from the site, looks like he's headed towards the Upper District of Vale.'

Ozpin's eyebrows raised at that before opening the attachment. Within was a video clip of a man, in a strange set of armor and with a strange weapon, ridding a strange-looking motorcycle at relatively high speeds through Forever Fall, his movements looked precise, and practiced as if he'd done whatever he was doing a thousand times before.

'His gear is of no make we've ever seen, but along with the video we picked up a strange repeating radio message a few minutes before he appeared, sadly it's in a language we know nothing about, but I've attached it as well.'

If Ozpin was intrigued before, he was on the edge of his seat now, without hesitation he pressed play on the audio file, a garbled mess of static and an almost ancient-sounding language played.

To say he was shocked was an understatement, not because of what he heard, but because he had no clue what it's said, He'd been alive for centuries, lived more lives than he could count, and here he was, faced with something he knew nothing about.

Ozpin emptied his mug, before refilling it once again, he'd had a long long day ahead of him, and if he was to discover exactly what was going on, he'd need to crack open the books and get to work right away.

-= Forever Fall - Eight Miles From Vales Upper-Class District =-

Jaune rode as fast as he could within a dense red forest, his eyes constantly on his surroundings, he's had some contact with his squad, mostly just check-in's to see how they were fairing.

From what they said it'd been all quiet, no contact whatsoever, they'd dug in and created a defendable position, set up the two heavy bolters and the lascannon and were going to be hunkering down untill they either got a response on Comms or he told them to move.

Things were going about as well as they could have been, Jaune had stopped a few miles back to chow down on a ration pack and check in again, but that'd been about as eventful as it got out here, he was beginning to think they'd not see any action at all. Not that he was complaining.

After a couple more minutes of ridding Jaune came upon the beginnings of a clearing, the blond killed the engine, removed his mask, dismounted the bike, and put his newly acquired Magnoculars to his eyes.

What Jaune saw made his jaw drop, not just because it was a peacefully bustling city where there should have been bombed-out ruins or an Imperial Guard Base.

No, what made Jaune's jaw drop, and his hands tremble, was the fact he recognized it.

Then it all clicked, the eerily silent red forest, the almost pristine white rocks, the city, this was Forever Fall, he was on Remnant.

Before he even had a moment to think he resealed his mask and jumped onto the bike, gunning the engine through the field in a desperate bid, it couldn't be real, the rations could have been bad, or maybe the water he drank had gone off, but he had to be sure.

Hence the fact he was rocketing across an empty field at 80 miles an hour.

As he got closer to the border to the city, it all started to get clearer, objects became more detailed and by the time he'd come to the fence, he'd almost forgotten to brake.

Jaune gripped the brake leaver at full strength, causing the bike to slide to the left and kick up a pile of white dirt and rocks.

The blond hopped off the bike and leaned against the fence, staring at the number of people that he'd caught the attention of, all of them wearing fine clothes and driving fancy looking cars, but the best part? He recognized them, the cars, the clothes, the street names.

Jaune choked back a sob, he was home, he was back, his family, his team. The blond soldier watched as a small crowd had formed a good distance from him, some of them pulling out scrolls to take pictures and videos, others talking on them with either the authorities or their friends.

Then it hit Jaune if he was back on Remnant, he needed to get to Beacon, he needed to get to Ozpin, That their best chance at putting themselves in a favorable position.

Without a second of hesitation, Jaune unsheathed Croea Mores and thumbed the only recently added switch on the handguard, the blade hummed with power as arcs of electricity slid like water across the ancient weapon.

Jaune whispered a prayer before cutting a large enough hole in the fence for him and his bike to fit, once he was happy with his work, he deactivated his sword, and sheathed it.

This elicited a few screams and hushed whispers from the crowd, all of them silently making way for the strangely armed man, two uniformed men now joined the crowd, pushing themselves to the front.

The only thing they got to see was a black and crimson clad man speed off onto the road and into the distance.

Jaune watched as the Upper-Class district of Vale speed by him, the world but a blur as he broke every speed law known to Remnant on his way to Beacon.

The Upper District quickly gave way to the Commercial, he could hear sirens behind him now, but he wouldn't dare stop.

A few moments later, and a Bullhead was above him now, following closely where the VPD squad cars could not. But Jaune ignored that too, he was too close to waste time explaining anything to them, he needed Ozpin.

As Jaune got closer and closer to beacon's tram system, he saw more and more of his former classmates, all of them looked exactly as he'd remembered them, But then, as he was in the home stretch, something hit him, hard, knocking him off his bike as they both slid down the street several feet.

Jaune groaned but quickly got back to his feet, his lasrifle at the ready out of sheer muscle memory.

"Stop right there!" Jaune's blood froze, that voice, the blond turned his head, eyes coming upon a red reaper, her giant scythe in hand and pointed right at him, she worked the action just to get her point across, but Jaune's mind went blank.

Without a thought, Jaune sprinted for his bike, narrowly dodging the reapers fire, and sped away. His heart pounding a mile a minute as the gravity of the situation hit him like a truck, either he got to Ozpin, or his team was dead.

Jaune barreled his Bike through the thin crowd of people waiting for the tram up beacons cliffs, sliding the bike through the doors just as they were closing, not a moment later, the tram started moving up and away from his pursuers, giving him a moment to breathe.

The blond let out a deep sigh and looked around him, his face going pale almost immediately.

The tram was packed, not just with those visiting Beacons grounds, but students as well, all of whom had just seen him running from both the Vale Police Department and one of their fellow students.

Everyone stared at him in silence, some students have already created a human shield separating him from the rest of the civilians.

"Hah, ya know, it's a pretty funny story if you think about it," Jaune said with a nervous chuckle.

Disappointingly though, it seemed like his attempt at humor had done nothing but put them more on guard, a few of the students blatantly moving in to take hold of him.

"Damn, I really hoped you guys would just be chill," The blond soldier stated disappointedly before drawing Croea Mores and activating the now power sword.

His action caught the students in the tram by surprise, each of them whispering to each other before one made a mad dash at him.

Jaune could see the telegraphed attack from a mile away, without a second thought, and a swift swing of his sword, he sliced the student's Maule in two, the solid head of the weapon clanking loudly to the floor. The sound of gasps and cries of fear could be heard from the civilians

"By The Golden Throne will you all just relax?" Jaune shouted a little louder than he'd meant too, "If I knew I'd needed an appointment with Ozpin I would have called ahead!"

None of the students said a word, but much to his relief, neither did they attack him, instead they elected to just stand there and stare daggers at him.

There was a moment of tense silence as the only thing that could be heard was the mechanics of the tram moving up the cliff.

That was untill the tram stopped, let out a beep, and the doors opened.

Jaune wasted no time and gunned the Bikes engine out of the tram, sliding through another small crowd of people without any injury.

Then, much to the Lieutenants annoyance, he and his bike gained a slight purple hue and floated up into the air.

Now completely motionless and at the mercy of the great Headmistress once again, Jaune let himself fall limp.

"Frak."

The Professor wasted no time in showing herself, along with one Professor Port, the large man's blunderbuss turned ax pointed right at him.

"Now just what makes you think you can break every traffic law imaginable, evade the VPD, hijack a Beacon Tram, and assault my students all in the span of a half-hour?" The blond woman said, a deep frown on her face as she did her best to keep her composure.

"Of course of all the professors I had to run into it had to be Glynda," Jaune whispered to himself, just barely being heard by said Professor.

"Ho-ho! Looks like this one has some chops!" Petter exclaimed loudly, his weapon still held stiffly at the ready.

By now a small crowd was forming around them, a few younger students drawing their weapons to support, others having already known the fight was over from the start just sat and watched.

"This is no time for jokes," Glynda stressed, a hand rubbing her temples as she felt a major headache forming, "Who are you, and why are you here?"

Jaune scoffed, he'd thought he's made it pretty clear. "I'm here to speak with Ozpin."

"And what could you possibly have to say to the Headmaster that warrants your reckless actions?" Glynda stated as if she were reprimanding a child.

"Holy Terra, can't an old student just visit his beloved Headmaster?" Jaune said with a chuckle, he wanted to saver this for a moment longer before dropping the proverbial bomb on them.

"An old student would have called ahead," Glynda stated dully.

Jaune scoffed, "I did, more of a blanket call really, but it seems no one here speaks High Gothic."

Glynda didn't react immediately, but when she did Jaune wished he could take a pict to savor the moment.

Without a word, Jaune and his floating bike were whisked away from the crowd, rushed through the familiar hallways of Beacon, and entered into an elevator with no one else but the Headmistress.

The elevator ride was spent in silence, not a sound untill the elevator dinged and Jaune was thrown to the ground, his bike conveniently landing on top of him, and his weapons being whisked away by the same very purple hue that carried him all this way.

"Glynda, I see our guest has finally arrived, though I don't believe you needed to throw him like that." The headmaster said matter of factly, prompting Jaune to jump to his feet and snap into a salute.

A moment later The blond relaxed, his muscle memory having taken over. An understandable mistake when you take into account that his superior for the past year and a half could easily have him shot for not doing so.

Ozpin stood in silence for a moment before motioning to a chair, "Please, have a seat, you mentioned needing to speak to me?"

Jaune hesitantly sat down, his masked face looking around the room, he'd been so focused in trying to get here he'd not even thought of what he'd say, 'Hey there old pal, remember me? Jaune? Arc? The guy that's been missing for the past year and a half? Yeah, that's me how've you been?'

Jaune exhaled sharply, he wasn't that stupid, or at least he tried not to be, there was a much simpler solution.

Without a word, Jaune pulled his mask from his face, letting it hang limply by his helmet before facing looking the headmaster in the eyes.

Ozpin blinked, then blinked again.

"Glynda, you are to return to your duties, I am NOT to be interrupted. Am I understood?" Ozpin stated, leaving the Headmistress to let out a surprised cough, she opened her mouth to disagree, but Ozpin beat her to the proverbial punch, "And leave his weapons."

The headmistress let out a deep sigh, put away her riding crop, and swiftly left the room, Jaune and Ozpin's eyes locked into a stare the whole time.

"You are alive."

Jaune let out a hearty genuine chuckle, "Of course I'm alive, have been for the past year and a half."

Ozpin's eyes narrowed, "You've only been missing for six months."

"Throne Damned Warp" Jaune whispered to himself, "I'll explain all of that to you in detail, but first, I need your help in Evacing my team from Forever Fall."

"Your team? They're already on Beacon's grounds, have been since you disappeared."

Jaune let out a heavy sigh, "No, I'm talking about my Squad, our Valkyrie crash-landed in forever fall, I had them set up a defensive position and wait for me to scout the area, and they will not hesitate to shoot anything that moves. Especially Aeris, she's got to be itching to use that plasma gun."

Ozpin's eyebrow raised at the mention of another team and raised even higher at the mention of a 'Plasma Gun'.

Suddenly, Jaune's helmet Comms exploded to live, Jak's voice coming through grainy but otherwise clear. "Lieutenant, we've got humanoid contacts closing in on our East, looks like two fast movers and at least two squads of Xenos Deserters judging by their equipment."

Jaune keyed his helmet Comms and spoke harshly into the mic, "Stand down Jaks, I repeat, Stand down, do not fire a single shot, if you do I'll shoot you myself."

Ozpin was honestly surprised by the harshness of his words. The former student sitting in front of him acted less like the bumbling blond he had been and more like a career soldier.

The boy, no the man sitting in front of him reminded him a lot more of Ironwood than he'd like to admit.

Jaune listened as nothing but static perforated his ears for a moment, then there was a click, "Understood, Standing down, Had to take the Plasma gun from Aeris though."

Jaune let out a genuine chuckle, "Acknowledged, Follow the directions of the Incomings, but do NOT give up your weapons, I want everything in that Valk secured in the transports, not a single non-imperial hand is to touch any of that gear, and scuttle the Valk, Understood? I'll be seeing you soon."

"Copy that, We'll get it done, Emperor Protects."

"The Emperor Protects," Jaune replied.

Ozpin was staring at Jaune like he'd been speaking another language, which, to be fair, he had been.

"My team will be keeping their weapons, securing all our gear and scuttling our original transport," Jaune stated, his voice leaving no room for argument, something that caught the headmaster off guard.

"And what makes you think you can make such demands?" Ozpin stated.

Jaune laughed, "The equipment we have is property of none other than his Holiest Inquisition, and as the highest-ranking individual within said Inquisition on this planet, all assets are under my jurisdiction."

Ozpin's brain ground to a halt for a moment never had anyone so blatantly ignored him and made such outrageous demands.

"And what gives your alleged inquisition the right to do that?"

Jaune sighed before removing a small emblem from his boot, it was a strange thing to Ozpin, an emblem much in the style of Ruby's rose. but this was no rose, it was in the shape of a Gothic 'I', with three lines intersecting in the center and a skull inlet in the center of their eye.

"And what does that have to do with you giving me orders Mr. Arc?" Ozpin asked, slightly confused at the action.

"With this Rosette, I can order the deaths of an entire planet's population. With this, I can make even the most stubborn planetary governor neal at my feet. With this, my word is as good as the word of the great God-Emperor himself." Jaune stated simply, he didn't like having to reveal that, not even his team knew of his status as an Acolyte, hell, most of the stuff he'd just told the old headmaster wasn't even entirely accurate, but he needed to get his point across, and there was no better way than to reveal an Inquisitorial Rosette, even if it had only been given to him two weeks ago and he'd not even scratched the surface of Inquisitorial training.

Ozpin was at a loss for words, he'd never admitted it, but he was, there was very little that surprised him anymore, but the tone Jaune had taken, his words so meticulously repeated as if he'd been reading from a book, it had genuinely surprised the old headmaster.

"You don't know it yet Ozpin, but there is much you do not understand about this galaxy."

Jaune's radio crackled to life once with Jaks' voice, "Lieutenant, we've made contact, but they're demanding we surrender our weapons, Orders?"

"Standby" Jaune stated simply, before eyeing the headmaster.

"Trust me, You do not want us as enemies."

Ozpin stared Jaune down for a moment, his brown eyes staring him down as if trying to dissect his very soul.

Without a word, the man withdrew his scroll and tapped a few times before putting it up to his ears.

"Oobleck, stand down, assist with any wounded, but do not under any circumstances touch their equipment, there are greater forces at work, Understood." Ozpin didn't even wait for a response before hanging up and placing his scroll on the desk.

Jaune keyed his comms, "You're good to go Jaks."

"Thank the Emperor, We'll get to work."

"Copy that."

Jaune continued to stare down Ozpin, neither of them making a move or a sound, that is, untill Jaune sat back down with a sigh and pulled a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from a pouch on his leg, The blond man depositing on between his lips and lighting it.

The young blond took a long drag before sighing in relief, his shoulders sagging a bit before holding the pack out to Ozpin.

"Would you like an Ilo Headmaster?"

A/N

Hey guys, I'm Not Dead: Part 2 Electric Boogaloo, Now with an extra-long chapter and an assload of plot to make up for it!

Yeah I know, I've been gone for almost seven months and all I've done in all that time is add a short chapter two to a one-shot, but believe me, there's a good reason, ya'll will just never know exactly what the reason is.

As for the Chapter and it's length, I know it's a lot longer than I normally put out, but for some reason, I just dumped my entire brain into a file and decided I liked it, I've had this return planned for a while now, with a few changed here and there from the original ideas I had, but in the end, I'm pretty happy with it.

And finally, I am once again asking for your emotional support! Leave a review and tell me what you liked or didn't like, what stuff seems cool to you? Please feed my already shattered ego?

Anywho, I pretty much immediately started work on the next chapter after I finished editing this, so see you in the next one fairly soon!

Probably.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I'm Not Dead: Part 2 Electric Boogaloo, Now with an extra-long chapter and an assload of plot to make up for it!
> 
> Yeah I know, I've been gone for almost seven months and all I've done in all that time is add a short chapter two to a one-shot, but believe me, there's a good reason, ya'll will just never know exactly what the reason is.
> 
> As for the Chapter and it's length, I know it's a lot longer than I normally put out, but for some reason, I just dumped my entire brain into a file and decided I liked it, I've had this return planned for a while now, with a few changed here and there from the original ideas I had, but in the end, I'm pretty happy with it.
> 
> And finally, I am once again asking for your emotional support! Leave a review and tell me what you liked or didn't like, what stuff seems cool to you? Please feed my already shattered ego?
> 
> Anywho, I pretty much immediately started work on the next chapter after I finished editing this, so see you in the next one fairly soon!
> 
> Probably.


	10. The Emperor Protects Chapter 10

-= Remnant - Beacon Cliffs =-

Jaune stared over Beacon's cliffs silently, Lho hanging from his lips lazily, he'd just gotten off the radio with Jaks, they were confused, to say the least, the only thing keeping them from fighting their way to him being his orders.

The blond took another long drag and did his best to relax again, even if he knew that wasn't going to be happening any time soon.

There was still a lot of work to be done here to make it safe, not just for them but for the entire throne damned planet.

Wind buffeted against Jaune, pushing hard at his face and flinging the almost finished Ilo from his mouth, The blond watched at two grey bullheads with Beacon's emblem embezzled on the sides flew by him.

With that, Jaune resealed his mask and walked to the landing pads, by the time he'd gotten there, most if not all of Beacon's non-hunter security force had already been dismissed, leaving only Jaune, his team, a pile of exceedingly dangerous Imperial equipment, and Professor Oobleck.

As the blond lieutenant approached, he caught the attention of the Professor, who was now talking on the phone, the man's eyes were on him like glue, not moving even as he spoke with whoever was on the other end, no doubt Ozpin.

Jaune ignored him, instead electing to get the status of his team, without a word, The blond approached the remainder of Phoenix squad.

"What's the situation on your end?" Jaune asked in high gothic, it was his only way of speaking privately with Ozpin's eyes everywhere

"Better than we thought," Jaks responded simply "We stripped the Valk of anything and everything of use, munitions, and gear, everything else is just a slag heap by now, as for the door gunner, he's stable and in the green, I've got him sedated for now, but he'll be fine with us."

"Good, we'll need every hand we can get," The blond smiled, "In the meantime, we've been set up in an old abandoned maintenance building, I want this gear secured and the building locked down, no one but us in or out, understood?" 

The maintenance building was almost as old as the school was, and hadn't been touched in about as long, a moderately sized two-story concrete building built into the cliff face and a good walk from beacon propper, it was the easiest to secure and defend.

Phoenix squad all threw up lazy salutes before getting to work, Jaune pitching in as well, the work went fast, Jaks stayed with the gear and helped load the landing pad's pushcarts, while Aeris pushed the carts back and forth, and Jaune and Val unloaded and secured the gear into their new home.

A few students had followed Aeris as she moved through the campus, no doubt sparking their curiosity, but they were always immediately halted at the door to the maintenance building by either Jaune or Val.

As soon as the final pieces of gear were secured, and Aeris was left to keep their new home secured, Jaune and Val returned to the landing pad, the both of them immediately grabbing either side of the stretcher and ferrying the injured guardsman to their new base of operations, Jaks following along with them.

With everything secured, all heads accounted for, and an uncomfortable crowd of students hovering around their new home, Jaune ordered the building to be reinforced with the resources they had at their disposal, all the windows on the first floor were sealed with sheets of metal found within, welded to the window frames with the tools they'd taken from the Valk.

The front door, which was also coincidentally the only door that wasn't already blocked off, was guarded at all times, Aeris usually being the one to volunteer, though that was only a temporary solution untill they got the Base up and running and could install proper cogitator locks.

As for the second floor, Jaune elected for more natural light, the two windows on either side of the front face of the building were smashed out and replaced with the Heavy Bolters from the Valk and reinforced with whatever they could find, mostly sandbags and whatever metal sheets they had left.

From the outside, the building looked like any other hab they'd ever occupied, the only thing missing was the imperial iconography, but Jaune had a plan for that already.

The blond watched out the small space between sandbags though one of the second-floor windows, the crowd they had attracted had grown, thankfully the VPD had been stopped at the tram station, but that didn't stop the small army of curious students as they milled around his new base, taking pictures and videos where they could.

Jaune recognized a few faces in the crowd even with the sun beginning to set, Cardin being the one that elicited the most reaction from him, that is if wanting to mount the Heavy Bolter and put him down for good was a reaction.

The blond turned from his perch, the room was lit by a combination of Imperial survival lights and the fluorescent bulbs in the ceiling, the hum of the lights reminding him of their old Guard barracks.

Behind him, he could see Val setting up cots, in the newly designated bunk area, Jaks had just finished settling in the door gunner in her section of the room, all of her medical equipment and gear now set up and ready to go.

Jaune pulled himself from the window and walked over to Val, giving her a hand and unpacking some of the survival bedding they'd had in the cargo hold. As he finished dropping the final blanket, he turned to Val, and put his arm around her, she jumped for a moment, but quickly leaned into him, her eyes glancing to where she'd last seen Jaks, but she was no longer there.

"So this is Remnant?" The woman asked quietly.

Jaune nodded before placing a kiss on her now helmetless head, right between her sandy blond ears, "This is Remnant."

"Is your family here?"

Jaune grimaced, with all of the hustle and bustle of the past few hours, he'd completely forgotten about getting in contact with them, "Yes, and I've got no doubt you'll meet them soon, they'll love you"

Val smiled, and hugged Jaune before giving him a peck on the lips and sitting down on cot, "I'm glad, I just hope, since we're really here, we can have some time to ourselves." 

Jaune smiled and sat across from her, taking her hands in his, "Of course we can, we just have a couple of things we need to sort out first."

"I'll hold you to that," Val said with a grin.

"I expect you too."

-= Remnant - Headmaster Ozpin's Office =-

Ozpin watched his computer screen in silence as crimson and black-clad soldiers turned the old maintenance building into a variable fortress, huge barrels poked between sandbags in the second-floor windows, none of his cameras within the building were still functional, either having fallen into disrepair or smashed out by Jaune and his team.

Jaune was an interesting matter, what could have possibly caused such a dramatic change? He said he'd been gone for over a year and a half, but that couldn't be right, by his records he'd only been gone a quarter of that time at most.

And his team, they were an enigma as well, even their faces had yet to be revealed from behind their strange masks.

That's not to mention their equipment, it looked to be simple, but highly functional, black armor and gear over a deep red jumpsuit, their weapons were large and blocky, thick cables instead of magazines, and large heavy looking weapons that glowed blue with destructive energy.

Nothing they had with them matched anything that'd ever been seen on Remnant, Even the double-headed eagle that was plastered on everything they had was an enigma, was this a new faction? Or the even less likely scenario, had it just stayed in the shadows for so long not even he knew of them?

Only time would tell, and Ozpin hated waiting.

-= Remnant - Outside Maintinance Building =-

Blake watched from a tree as the new arrivals made themselves at home in Beacon's maintenance building, the black and red-clad people setting up fortifications and heavy weapons as if it were a Sunday chore.

Even more interesting was that she hadn't seen a single one of their faces. Any time one of them was visible, they were armed for war.

Blake's suspicion only increased over time, they'd finished most if not all of their reinforcement and a majority of the crowd they had attracted had disappeared at the setting of the sun.

But not her, she needed answers, she needed to know who or what these people were. She needed to know if they were a threat.

The brunette knew she should have left with everyone else, her mind telling her they were not worth the time it would take to watch them, but her gut kept her rooted to the tree branch, something about them just elicited such a raw feeling of curiosity that couldn't just be brushed off.

She watched for what felt like hours, her enhanced vision giving her a clear view of the building even after the sun had disappeared below the horizon.

Blake glanced at her scroll, four hours, four hours had passed and she had learned nothing. The Faunus women let out a disappointed sigh just before the front door of the building opened with an audible creak.

In a snap, Blake's eyes were on the now open door, the person guarding the door entering as another excited to take her place.

A shift change, that was good to know, the brunette woman settling in once again at the prospect of new information.

The front door to the building remained open, and the person that had taken the last guards place pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.

"Why don't you come down from that tree and have a smoke with me?"

Blake jumped, how the hell did he see her? She was wearing all black hidden behind tree cover, and far enough away to where it shouldn't have been possible for him to see her.

Without much choice, Blake jumped from the tree and meet with the masked man.

"Do you even smoke? I can't remember." The man said with a light chuckle, his empty hand rubbing the back of his helmet.

"No, thank you."

"How about a cup of tea? We did just put the kettle on."

Blake stared blankly at the man for a moment before nodding her head, it was no doubt dangerous for her to accept the invitation, but the prospect of learning more information swayed her.

Curiosity killed the cat after all.

The man motioned for her to enter, and with a moment of hesitation, she did so, rubbing shoulders with another black and red-clad individual as they exited the building, no doubt to return to their post.

The man took the lead once again, taking her through the almost barren first floor and up to the much more interesting second floor.

The first thing Blake noticed was that two pairs of eyes were on her, not masks, but eyes. The first she noticed was an absolute monster of a woman, dressed in just a crimson jumpsuit with a blocky pistol on her hip. In her hands was a large syringe, inserted into an IV bag, which in turn was attached to the unconscious body of a man on a stretcher.

The next was a petite woman, a pair of sandy blond ears peaking from her head, her eyes never left Blake as she stirred the contents of a steaming pot of what was no doubt their dinner.

"Blake, this is Jaks and Valmir," The man motioned to them, "Jaks is our resident doc, and Val here is our chef,"

Blake could hear Jaks let out a soft chuckle as the blond woman threw a bowl at the still masked man, a cute pout on her face.

"Wait, I never told you my name," Blake said, her mind clicking a little later than she'd have liked, she reached for her weapon, but found it was no longer there.

"Aeris downstairs will watch your weapon till you leave, for safety reasons obviously, as for that little tidbit of information, we'll get to that, but first have a seat." The man stated nonchalantly as he took a seat beside Val.

Blake cursed herself for letting herself get into such a dangerous situation before sitting on the bunk across from both Val and the still masked man.

"Now Blake, there's no need for the bow here." The masked man said motioning to her head.

It seemed these people had her right where they wanted her, without a word, she removed the bow and pushed it into her pocket.

"See Val, no need to be nervous, Remnant's got a lot of abhumans." The masked man said as he put his arm around the blond woman's shoulder.

"Stop messing with her Jaune, just get to the point,"

Blake's eyes narrowed "Did you just say Jaune? As in Jaune Arc?"

The masked man let out a deep sigh before looking to Val and speaking with a tone of mock offense "Why'd you have to ruin the surprise?"

"Because you're scaring her half to death!" The woman said before returning to stir the pot of food.

"Jaune?" Blake asked, her eyes still narrow but mind racing, she swore she could hear her heart beating a mile a minute.

The masked man reached for his face and removed the mask and helmet, revealing a pair of yellow blond hair and a set of ocean blue eyes.

"Heya Blake, long time no see."

The brunette woman's mind ground to a halt, sitting here, right in front of her, dressed in strange clothes and armed with even more strange weapons, was Jaune Arc. The same Jaune Arc that had died not four months ago on a mission both JNPR and RWBY had embarked on.

"What, cat got your tongue?" Jaune said with a chuckle, earning him a jab to the side from the woman beside him.

"You're supposed to be dead," Blake whispered to herself, her eyes drinking in Jaune's features "How are you alive? Who are these people? Why didn't you come back?"

Jaune held up a gloved hand to silence the brunette, "Those are a lot of questions with very complex answers, but I'll do my best."

"First of all, I did die, second of all, this is Phoenix squad and I am their Lieutenant, and thirdly of all, I couldn't, I tried for over a year, but there was no conceivable way I could return untill now, and even then it was more of a happy accident than anything else."

Blake tried to soak up as much information as he could, Jaune had somehow simplified a complex question all while giving up as little information as humanly possible, she'd say she was impressed if he hadn't just done it to her.

The blond placed a cigarette in his mouth, lit it, and took a long drag, "I know those aren't the answers you'd have liked, but I just needed you to get out of that tree and stop stalking my men."

"You only brought me in here to make me leave? What the hell are you talking about, does anyone else know you're even alive?" Blake said with a raised voice, the sound of heavy footfalls behind her tipping her off to the fact that the monster of a woman Jaks was now stationed directly behind her.

"Ozpin knows, but he was the first," Jaune said before taking another drag, "I plan on filling in the rest of JNPR and RWBY tonight as well."

Blake paused, "So you revealed yourself to me knowing I'd immediately tell everyone else?"

Jaune smiled, "Bingo, That's five Thrones Jaks!"

The large woman scoffed and handed Jaune the 'Thrones' as Jaune had called them, Blake had never heard of such a currency, especially with the fact that the Lien was Remnant's standard.

Jaune stood up from the cot, cigarette hanging lazily from his mouth before motioning for Blake to follow him. 

The blond showed her to the door, handed her Gambold Shrowd, and placed a hand on her shoulder, "It's good to see you, Blake, Bring everyone here and I'll fill you in on as many details as you want."

Without a word, Blake broke off into a full sprint towards Beacon's grounds, her gut filled with a mix of emotions she couldn't quite place, and the knowledge that she probably wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight.

A few moments later and she was lightly panting in front of her dorm, she could hear Ruby and Yang arguing about something on the other side.

Blake opened the door and was met with three sets of eyes on her.

"Well look who's arrived from her midnight rendezvous with Sun the hunk!" Yang exclaimed, jumping to her feet and dropping Ruby to the floor before bolting to her side.

"It's only ten-thirty Yang, that hardly counts as midnight." Weiss corrected, her eyes still combing the textbook in front of her.

"I wasn't with Sun, Jaune's alive," Blake stated simply, and just like that the room became completely silent.

"I expected something like this from Yang, not you," Weiss stated, the textbook in front of her now closed as she stared at blake with bearly veiled anger.

Blake let out a heavy sigh, "I'm serious, I saw him with my own eyes, I came because he told me to get you all."

"Why couldn't he get us himself?" Yang asked seriously.

"Because he's with Beacon's new arrivals."

"You mean the criminals in the Maintinace building?" Weiss asked, her tone carrying a hint of hope that Blake was bearly able to pick up on, "What in the world would Jaune be doing with a bunch of no good criminals?"

Before the Faunus woman could respond, Ruby was in front of her, the young leader's weapon in hand with a fire in her eyes she'd not seen in months.

"No, I think he's their leader."

Ruby relaxed, but only slightly, Yang was still processing the information bomb that had just been dropped on her, and Weiss was on her feet and out the door faster than she'd ever seen.

The reaper following close behind her, followed by Yang shortly after, Blake exited the dorm behind them, shut the door, and quickly knocked on JNPR's, a groggy Nora answering after a moment as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "What's up?"

"Jaune's alive."

-= Remnant - Maintenance Building =-

Jaune returned to the second floor after having finished his Lho and sitting down on the cot he'd claimed conveniently right beside Val's.

"Did you have to mess with her so much?" Val asked as she absentmindedly added another can of soup rations to the pot.

The blond sighed before removing his vest, placing it beside the hellgun and pack leaned up against his cot, "She's not used to the Jaune you are, I was a completely different person before the Emperor, bless his light, brought me to the Ultima Segmentum, I need her to think I'm the same Jaune she knew before."

Val lifted her spoon, watching as the thick Ministorum approved soup dripped back into the pot, "It's just strange to think we're on your home planet, it's so," She paused, "Peacefull, almost freakishly so."

"Yeah, compared to the places we've been this place is about as peaceful as it gets," Jaune said as he unhooked the various armor pieces from his person, "But it has its own dangers, ones that we can't underestimate."

"The Grimm, you described them as almost lesser daemons?" Jaks asked before scooping some soup from the pot and eating it.

"Not just the Grimm, but the people, just because we're away from the Imperium doesn't mean we won't have to deal with Heretics, daemons, even lesser ones, don't just appear from thin air," Jaune said, stashing the rest of his gear by his cot and joining them by the pot, mess kit in hand.

A crackle of static followed by the voice of Aeris came over the radio "Lieutenant, I've got a group of teenaged girls at the door, looks like the ones you sent for."

Jaune got up from his seat by the port and approached the radio, ", Right on time, bring them in, and you can keep guard from up here, Chow is ready,"

With that, Jaune returned to his place, listening as a small crowds' worth of footsteps came closer and closer.

As soon as they reached the top of the stairs, Jaune turned from the pot, his eyes roving over the shocked faces of his former friends all crowded around the doorway and dressed in their sleepwear.

"Hey guys, want some soup?"

Ruby took a step forward, her eyes shimmering with tears, "Is that really you?"

"Real as the day I was-"

Jaune was interrupted as a blur of white flew from the crowd and slammed into him, arms wrapped around his torso and tears soaking his jumpsuit as one Weiss Schnee embraced the blond man, throwing away her dignity.

The white-haired woman was sobbing hysterically now, face buried in his chest, the next thing he knew he was being embraced from all sides, trapped and unable to move, he accepted his fate.

"I'm sorry" Weiss whispered into Jaune's chest, the blond barely being able to hear it over the sound of both team RWBY and NP crying, "I'm so so sorry."

Jaune sighed, "We have a lot to talk about."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, there may or may not have been some spicy stuff that went on between both Weiss and Jaune before he 'died', I may be a die-hard Lancaster shipper, but that won't stop me from indulging in the utter cutefest that is White Knight from time to time, but you'll get a little more insight on it next chapter.
> 
> As for the length of this chapter, It's a little longer than what I'd normally post, but nowhere near as long as the last update, you can expect longer chapters in the future, and I'm shooting for a weekly update schedule of every Wednesday, but I felt like this was a good place to end it.
> 
> As always, leave a review and tell me what you thought, I crave the attention and they motivate me to get chapters written out faster than I normally would.
> 
> I look forward to seeing all your thoughts, and I'll see you in the next chapter!


	11. The Emperor Protects Chapter 11

-= Remnant - Atlas - Six months Before Jaune Arc's 'Death' =-

Jaune could feel his stomach-churning as the airship bound for Atlas Acadamy hit a patch of turbulence, the cabin shaking slightly as his face turned a slight shade of green. The blond's mind went blank, and made it to the nearest garbage can just in time for him to empty the contents of his stomach into it.

Sure his getting better at dealing with his air sickness, he'd made it almost the entire trip to atlas this time, but there was something about flying that Jaune just didn't think he'd ever get used to.

The blond felt a hand on his shoulder, turning to look the boy found his red-haired partner as she gently rubbed his back untill he felt well enough to stand back up.

"Thanks, Pyr, almost made it the whole trip too," Jaune stated with a nervous laugh.

The champion smiled back sincerely, "Of course, Improvement takes time after all!"

Jaune smiled back at his partner, "Ain't that the truth,"

A voice came over the intercom of the airship, informing the students that they'd be landing in Atlas within the next ten minutes.

"We'd better get back to our seats," Jaune stated, thankful for the distraction from his still churning stomach.

Pyrrha nodded and followed him back to his seat.

Jaune sat down and strapped himself into his seat, a glance to his right revealed Weiss across the aisle from him, her eyes squarely on him. That is they were untill he meet them.

She looked away quickly, throwing herself into whatever conversation the red reaper beside her was engaged in.

"Strange" Jaune whispered to himself.

"What's strange?" Pyrrha asked, her eyes flicking between the blond and Weiss.

"Nothing, Let's make sure we have everything packed up before we land."

Pyrrha hesitated for a moment before her usual smile returned, "Let's"

-= Remnant - Atlas Acadamy Temporary Dorms =-

Jaune walked through the sterile and obscenely white halls of the academy, his eyes searching for even a hint of color or some sort of change in the walls or floor to focus on. He, of course, found none, much to his disappointment, while Atlas was without a doubt a beautiful kingdom, it could do with hiring new interior decorators.

A few more moments or wandering the pristine white walls, and jaune found himself on a balcony overlooking the central grounds. The cold prickled at his skin as snow lightly dusted him.

The blond took a deep breath, the cold air stinging his nostrils, but his shoulders relaxed none the less, anything was better than those damn hallways.

Jaune looked down at his heavy green jacket, thankful that he'd thought to pack something heavier than his pumpkin Pete's hoodie.

The sound of a door opening behind him made Jaune glance behind him.

Weiss walked to his side without a word, her eyes staring out into the frozen work before her.

"I'm sorry."

Jaune raised an eyebrow, "Did something happen?"

"Jaune just listen okay?" The white-haired woman said with a certain edge to her voice, Jaune was surprised, but nodded, prompting the woman to continue.

"I wanted to apologize for how I treated you back at the beginning of Beacon," Weiss stated, her voice cracking a bit, "I treated you badly, I ignored you, I was stuck up and thought you wanted nothing more than to have my name attached to yours, and for that I'm sorry."

Jaune stared at her silently for a moment, his mind sifting over the words she's said and the tone of her voice as she said them. Silence overtook the balcony as the blond boy processed everything.

As quickly as the silence had settled, it was broken, "Don't worry about it, we hardly even knew each other, and I definitely could have gone about it better then I did, so since we're trading apologize, I'm sorry too."

Weiss stared at the boy, surprise was written all over her face, and much to the white-haired woman's annoyance, Jaune hadn't even noticed, electing to instead stare out into the frozen academy before him.

"Really?" Weiss croaked, "That's it? You're not angry with me?"

Jaune looked at her again, this time being unable to miss the strange look on the woman's face, "Well yeah, it was like three years ago, I've known you for long enough to know when you apologize you really mean it, so if you're sorry then so am I."

Weiss' mouth opened and closed a few times, her mind trying to find some sort of amalgamation of words that would make even the slightest sense.

Before she had the chance though, a notably strong gust of cold wind struck the balcony, causing the white-haired woman to shiver for a moment.

Jaune noticed immediately, taking off his heavy jacket without a second thought, the blond held it out to Weiss, "Here, that'll warm you up."

The woman hesitantly took the jacket, sliding her arms into the sleeves and zipping it up, and like a wave the warmth hit her, she sighed contently before looking down at herself, the jacket was too big for her, that much was obvious, but something about it just made her heart flutter.

Weiss shook those thoughts from her mind, "Thanks,"

"Of course, that's what friends are for," Jaune said with a smile as another gust of wind blew itself into the two, the blond suppressing a shiver as best he could.

Weiss noticed this, a thought pushing itself into her mind, and her body acting it out before her mind had a chance to think it through.

"Uh, Weiss, why are you hu-"

"Shush you dolt," Weiss said as she smiled into Jaune's chest, her arms wrapped tightly around his torso.

The blond boy listened, a wave of heat rolling over his entire body as his heart fluttered, if she wanted him to shush he would, whatever meant he got to savor this moment for a long as possible.

-= Remnant - Atlas Academy - One Month Later =-

"You know we can't keep this secret from our teams forever right?" Jaune said as he pulled himself from the covers of his bed, quickly pulling his boxers up along with his slacks.

Weiss groaned, pushing herself deeper into the pillow to remain there, her body still both sore and as relaxed as it'd ever been at the same time.

Jaune finished dressing before returning to his bed, the white-haired blob wrapped in his covers let out another groan before turning over and looking at him. "I know, I just, I want to just enjoy it for a while first."

"I know you do, and we can, but sooner or later they're either going to find out or we'll have to tell them," Jaune said simply, "And I'd rather tell them then have them come back to the dorm early."

"Agreed," Weiss said before rising from the bed with a shiver.

"But I want pancakes now Reeeeen!" The voice of Nora could be heard from the other side of the dorm door, and they were quickly approaching, both Jaune and Weiss jumping from their relaxed states as the blond opened the closet and the nude White-haired woman jumping in, her clothes bundled up in her arms.

Jaune closed the closet just as the dorm door opened. An excited Nora and bored looking Ren entering before closing the door behind them.

The pink-haired Valkyrie did a double-take before appearing at Jaune's side in an instant "Hey Jaune, what are you doing here?"

Jaune stumbled for a moment before leaning against the closet door, "I had some stuff I needed to pick up real quick, what about you?"

Nora squinted her eyes at him before hopping back out of his personal space and jumping onto her bed, "Ren and I needed to grab our jackets since the cafeteria is colder than usual!"

"It's the same temperature as the rest of the academy" Ren chimed in, his voice either having not been heard by Nora, or she just elected to ignore it.

Ren tossed Nora's jacket at her, before putting his own on and returning to the dorm door and opening it, the pink-haired woman was on her feet faster than Jaune's eyes could see, her excited squealing being the only indication that she had left at all.

Ren paused at the door before turning to Jaune with a rare sly grin, "I'd take a shower, you still smell like sex."

Jaune's eyes widened at his words, but by the time his mind had thought up a response, Ren was already gone.

The blond let out a sigh before opening the closet door to reveal a now fully clothed Weiss Schnee, her face had a look of terror for a moment before she realized it was Jaune doing the opening.

"Well, that was enough excitement for one day," Jaune said with a light chuckle, the white-haired woman letting out her own small laugh, the blond laughed a little bit harder, and the next thing the two of them knew, they were laughing like a couple of kids who'd just gotten away with stealing from the cookie jar.

The laughter died down after a moment, and the two of them smiled at each other.

Weiss sniffed the air as her nose scrunched up, "He is right, you do need a shower."

"You mean 'we' need a shower?" Jaune smiled, arms taking the Schnee by the waist and pulling her in for a kiss, it was quick, simple, yet full of emotion.

"You dolt," Weiss said with a small smile.

"I didn't hear a no!"

The Heiress smiled, "That's because it wasn't."

-= Remnant - Beacon Acadamy - Maintinance Building =-

Jaune was jostled from his memories by all but a single pair of arms separating from him, the white-haired heiress still attached to him like he'd disappear the moment she let go.

Yang leaned over to Blake and spoke in a hushed whisper, eyes never leaving the heap of pale skin and white hair glued to Jaune, "Uhh, What's up with Weiss?"

"They were together," Ren chimed in with his own whisper, causing Yang's eyes to bulge from her head, along with everyone else present, a sandy blond set of ears picking up the whisper as well.

Val stood up from her cot, "So this is the Weiss you were telling me about?"

Jaune's face paled, he knew this moment would come, he'd just hoped it hadn't been so soon, "Yeah, Weiss, Meet Valmir Fehr, Val, meet Weiss Schnee."

Weiss sniffled for a moment before staring up at the Faunus woman in front of her, a set of golden yellow eyes staring into her soul with barely veiled annoyance.

"Nice to meet you, Weiss." The tanned woman stated, sticking her hand out to the Schnee.

Weiss took the woman's hand to shake it and felt her hand being squeezed a little tighter than would be normal for a formal greeting.

"Val, let the poor girl go," Jaune said with a sigh, his voice taking a serious tone.

The felinid woman didn't move, her eyes continuing to burn holes into Weiss before finally relenting, "Yes, Sir."

Jaune rubbed his eyes for a moment, "Thank you, we'll talk about this later."

Weiss could have sworn she heard the woman whisper something under her breath, but couldn't quite make it out.

Now fully separated, Jaune motioned for everyone to sit down, to which Ruby, Yang, Weiss, and Nora found vacant cots to settle into, Ren and Blake elected to remain standing.

Jaune surveyed their expressions before speaking, "My name is Lieutenant Jaune Arc of his Emperor's Holy Inquisitorial Stormtroopers,"

The blond motioned to Jaks, the woman's face blank of emotion as she scooped another serving of soup into her bowl, "That's Seargent Jaks, she's our medic and resident philosopher."

The woman elected to give a simple wave to the small crowd of people before returning to her food.

"Next is Corporal Valmir Fehr, she's our Comms operator and designated marksman."

"Nice to meet most of you!" The felinid woman said with a smile.

Jaune cringed at the word 'most' but continued, motioning to the still fully armed and armored woman sitting by the window. "And that over there Corporal Aeris, she's our grenadier."

"And Heavy weapons specialist!" The woman shouted from across the room, causing Jaune to let out a small chuckle.

"And our heavy weapons specialist."

Six pairs of eyes stared blankly at him.

"Okay okay I get it, I'm alive, can we please pay attention?" Jaune said with a twinge of annoyance in his voice.

Ruby raised her hand as if to ask a question, the blond motioning to her with a sigh, "Uh, Jaune? What happened to your hand?"

The blond in question looked down at his right hand in confusion before realizing his gloves were off, revealing his bionic hand for the world to see.

Jaune looked up at his old friends with a nervous chuckle, "By the Throne, I forgot about that."

"How the hell do you forget about losing a hand?" Yang yelled, her right arm tingling at the thought of losing it.

"Actually, it's the whole arm up to the bicep." Jaks interrupted, between spoonfuls of soup.

Jaune chuckled nervously for what felt like the hundredth time in the past five minutes as his old friends looked at him with a mixture of pity and sadness. "Hey I mean you should see the other guy, took his head clean off."

The blond's attempt at humor failed, the women, and Ren, staring at him blankly for a moment.

"Okay, I'm sure you all have a ton of questions, but I only have time for a few, so each of you gets one question, make it count."

Weiss was the first to speak, "Where did you go?"

"That's a little complicated, but to sum it up, I died." Jaune stated simply, "But the God-Emperor himself, Blessed Be His Name, was watching over me, he pulled me into a mindscape of his own design, showed me the state of the imperium, he told me he needed someone to make a difference, someone that could fight in his name and save the lives of innocents, it was an offer I couldn't refuse,"

Weiss interrupted the blond, her face scrunched up in confusion, "You're saying some god resurrected you to fight for him?"

Jaune's eyes hardened and his voice raised, "I will forgive you this once, but Throne forgive you take his name in vain again."

The blond's outburst caught the group by surprise, he'd spoken like he'd take off the Schnee's head if she disrespected this 'god-emperor' again

Jaune however, took a moment to mutter out a prayer, making the shape of an eagle with his hands before returning to what seemed like normal for the blond man.

Weiss couldn't wrap her head around what he'd just said, god-emperor? Just where in the hell had her bumbling knight gone?

"Next question," Jaune said simply, his head starting to hurt as he pulled his pack of Lho and lighter out, placing one in his mouth and lighting it.

Ruby's hand was up next, The blond pointing at her while taking a long drag.

"What's a Stormtrooper? Is it like a soldier?"

Jaune chuckled a bit, "That's a pretty complicated question as well, but I'll sum it up as best I can."

The blond let his Lho land from his mouth, scooping some soup into his mess kit as he spoke, "An Inquisitorial Stormtrooper a member of an elite fighting force used by Inquisitors, sometimes completely replacing your run of the mill Guardsman, harsher training, better equipment, and much higher standards. Compared to us, a guardsman is like a child with a slingshot."

Ruby seemed enthralled by his description, her eyes constantly switching between the blond and the various blocky weapons scattered around the room.

"So you're like a Specialist?" Weiss asked, her brow furrowed in confusion.

Jaune let out a hearty laugh, "No, we're nothing like the Specialists, we're better."

"What makes you better than a Specialist?" Blake asked, her thirst for information driving her to ask before she thought out her question.

"Well when your job is to hunt down the Heretic and exterminate them with little to no support, you either succeed and learn or die," Jaune said simply, a spoonful of soup quickly making its way into his awaiting mouth.

Jaune glanced at them for a moment, a variety of emotions on each of their faces ranging from confusion, disgust, and pitty.

"You shouldn't be surprised, Jaune said you fought Daemons," Val muttered just loud enough to be heard, her eyes roving over the colorful group before her.

Jaune sighed, "I told you, Just because they fight the Grimm doesn't mean they fight heretics."

"What do you mean by Daemons? Heretics?" Ren asked simply, his face not portraying the slightest hint of emotion.

"I'm afraid that's not something I can share with you," Jaune said with a genuinely apologetic tone.

Yang scoffed, "Then can you tell us what happened to your arm?"

Val shot a glare at the golden-blond haired woman before taking Jaune's side on his cot.

Jaks got up from her seat, mess kit still in hand, and walked up to Yang, the large woman's face remained stoic, their eyes burning into each other for a moment untill the monster of a woman spoke quietly enough for just Yang to hear. "Have you ever seen a sword as big as you are tall, with a chainsaw for a blade?"

Yang's brow furrowed at the mental image that sentence conjured up. "I can't say that I have."

The woman nodded her head, "Then it'd be in your best interest to not bring it up again."

Yang nodded her head quickly before sitting back down, her eyes staring at Jaune with an apologetic look.

Jaune glanced at his watch, "Well as fun as this has been I think it's time you all got back to your dorms."

The colorful crowd in front of him stood up to protest but were immediately silenced by a look from Jaks, as much as they wanted to stay and spend time with Jaune, it was probably best that they did leave, for now, seeing as to if they wanted too they could probably cut the tension in the air with a knife.

"I'll show you all out," Val said simply, before leading the small crowd back down the stairs and to the door.

The sandy blond woman handed them back their weapons as they filed out the door, pausing at Weiss, Val put a hand on her shoulder and kept her rooted within the doorway.

"What is it?" Weiss asked, her face sour after being forced to leave Jaune for the night.

"Jaune told me about the two of you," Val stated simply, her eyes hard and devoid of emotion, "I've been with that blond idiot since he appeared, he saved my life, bestowed upon me the blessings of the Emperor, and been my rock ever since."

Weiss didn't like where this was going, her stomach knotting as she silently listened.

"I know you love him, I know you two had something before," Val paused, her tone taking a more apologetic form as she spoke, "But I love him too, and we've been together through thick and thin for a long time,"

Weiss felt a metaphorical stab to her chest.

Val pulled a chain from around her neck inside of her crimson jumpsuit, revealing a pair of dog tags and a ring. "Remnant is our chance at a peaceful life, a life where we don't have to worry about each other surviving to tomorrow, so please, I beg of you, let us, let him have that, we've all been through horrors you can't even imagine, if you won't do it for us, then at least do it for him."

Weiss stared at the woman, her mind a swirling of emotions, anger, sadness, betrayal, it all just hurt so much, she wasn't sure exactly how to handle it. The heiress snatched her rapier from the blond woman's hands and ran, she ran untill she couldn't anymore, ending up in the Emerald forest in nothing but her sleepwear, and armed with her rapier.

And for the first time since Jaune disappeared, she cried, no, she bawled, tears mixing with snot as she curled up in a ball and cried untill she couldn't anymore, then that sadness quickly turned to anger as a fairly small Beowulf emerged from the bushes, it's pitch black fur, pristine white bone, and burning red eyes launched the woman into a rage, slashing and stabbing at the juvenile Grimm with reckless abandon.

Weiss continued storming through Forever Fall, her eyes searching for the next Grimm for her to tear apart, that is untill something slammed into the back of her head, knocking her unconscious.

-= Remnant - Emerald Forest =-

Weiss slowly opened her eyes, it was still dark, the moon giving off just enough light to be able to see well enough.

Though that wasn't the problem, no the problem was the fact that her hands and feet were bound behind her back.

The white-haired woman inspected her surroundings, it looked like she was still in the Emerald Forest, that was a good sign.

"What do we do if she wakes up?" 

Weiss froze, trying to keep as still as possible while also listening in as best as she could.

"Then we knock her back out, we still have a job to do, the Schnee is just a bonus."

Shuffling could be heard to Weiss' right, the voices getting louder along with the shuffling.

"Both of you shut it, just because it's a simple job doesn't mean we get to screw around, we get the weapons and get the hell out, buy the time they realize anything missing we'll be halfway to Vaccuo."

Weiss' eyes widened at that, they were planning to steal weapons from Beacon? How crazy were these guys?

A beep could be heard, followed by some more shuffling and the voice of a woman, "Let's secure the Schnee first though, that we even if something goes wrong we don't walk away empty-handed."

The woman's voice was cold, chilling even before she'd even realized it, two large and armored me walked up to her, she locked eyes with one, his black balaclava hiding everything but his crimson eyes from her, "Well would you look who's awake?"

"Ay, got ourselves a little eavesdropper here don't we?" The other man said with a slight chuckle before pulling a large rifle from behind his back.

Before she even had a chance to react, the butt of the rifle was smashed into her face, pain flowered from her nose as she felt something warm drip down her face and the taste of copper filled her mouth.

"Damn it, you never get them on the first try, let a master show you how it's done," The first man said before grabbing his own rifle and slamming its butt into her face, and as quickly as she'd awoken, Weiss returned to darkness, her face hitting the ground unceremoniously as blood dripped from her nose and mouth.

"Hey, she's no use to us as a vegetable, get her secured in the truck, we've got four and a half hours till sunup, and I want this job done in an hour." The female voice stated coldly, forcing the two men to sling their rifles and pick the petite woman up off the ground before securing her in a small cage in the back of their truck.

After all, they were on a timescale, and they did not want to anger their new client.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, fuck Weiss right? All my homies hate Weiss!
> 
> In all seriousness though, Weiss got fucked up all because she let her emotions get the better of her and ran off into the Emerald forest with nothing more than her PJs and a dinky rapier, what the hell did you expect would happen?
> 
> As for our sneaky bois and gorls in the Emerald Forest, you'll see more of them soon enough, after all, they are on a timescale!
> 
> As always leave a review tell me what you thought, it drives me to not be a lazy ass and stick to my weekly schedule.

**Author's Note:**

> This story has been up on FanFiction dot net for the past couple of years, but after a few requests, I've finally added it here. I do hope you enjoy it. I'm not a professional writer or anything, but I do try my best to make the stories I write as entertaining and interesting as I possibly can.
> 
> Also, please forgive any formatting errors you may encounter, I'm not an avid AO3 user, so I'm still figuring how the site works and all that. If you see an error and wanna let me know so I can fix it, just shoot me a PM and I'll do my best.
> 
> Oh, and I have no clue what is equal to a Review on this site, but any thoughts on the story you want to share can either be done through my PMs or in the comments, all I ask is that you're respectful about it.


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